CURITIBA
Curitiba is a mid-sized city in the interior of southern Brazil, at around 3000 feet above sea level. Curitiba has a cooler climate than most of Brazil (it can even have hard freezes in winter). There are a lot of Paraná pines (Araucaria angustifolia) in and around Curitiba. This page includes pics from Curitiba (first) and pics from the Paraná Highlands around Curitiba.

First, some pictures downtown...



The old city hall...



A large cathedral near downtown...



Avenida Jaime Reis, just north of downtown...



Praça Garibaldi, very nearby (note the parana pines--and a jacaranda just starting to bloom)...



A Paraná pine in front of an old house (used for some government agency)...



The Curitiba skyline viewed from a distance (from the botanical gardens)...



Curitiba Botanical Gardens (mostly had native plants, including the ubiquitous parana pines and queen palms but also some rather rare trees)...



Nice-looking (but unlabeled) Bromeliad in the botanical gardens...



Odd-looking greenhouse for Brazilian plants which are too tropical for Curitiba's climate...



Inside...



Now to the surrounding countryside...



Most of the countryside was a mixture of farmland and forest (with Paraná pines).



A large Paraná pine (Araucaria angustifolia)...



A Paraná pine in the forest...



A native palm, the wooly jelly palm (Butia eriospatha)...



Another native conifer in the area, a Podocarpus (not sure of species)...



Another nearby Paraná pine forest, but on a cloudier day...



Somewhat open understory of the pine forest...



Another understory pic, this time with some sort of Philodendron and a Bromeliad...



A native Brunfelsia in full bloom (probably Brunfelsia pilosa)...



A solitary Paraná pine in a field...



All of the above pictures on this page were taken in October 2010 by Brandt Maxwell.

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