Cali Botanical Garden Orchid Pavilion

Cali Botanical Garden was founded in 2001 on the initiative of the biologist Jorge Enrique Orejuela together with other individuals and institutions. In 2002 the power company Epsa lent it 14 hectares along the basin of the Cali River, in one of the valley's last remnants of tropical dry forest. A trail with ten educational stations was laid out in 2003, followed by years of reforestation and conservation work.

From 2010 financial difficulties led to the garden's closure, and in 2018 its management passed to the Fundación Zoológica de Cali. After renovation and expansion, including a four-storey observation tower designed by the architect Simón Vélez, the garden reopened on 1 September 2023.

The orchid pavilion builds on seven years of research and conservation work on local orchids. Construction began in October 2025 and took about eleven months; the pavilion opened to the public in the week of 12 September 2026. The Fundación Harold Eder paid for its design and construction, with resources contributed by the Fundación Zoológica de Cali, whose manager at the garden is Camilo Londoño.

According to Cali's daily El País, the structure was developed by professionals from several disciplines with the backing of local organisations, and it combines technological features with sustainable infrastructure intended to protect endangered species of Valle del Cauca.

The pavilion is laid out around interpretive paths that lead visitors from one educational display to the next and explain the environmental services provided by these tree-dwelling and epiphytic plants. It sits in a garden that conserves 14 hectares of tropical dry forest, whose other notable structure is the four-storey observation tower designed by the architect Simón Vélez.

The pavilion is devoted to orchids typical of the tropical dry forest that dominates the Cauca River valley, which the garden describes as one of Colombia's most threatened ecosystems. The route explains the symbiotic relationships between orchids and the organisms their reproduction depends on, above all fungi and pollinators.

It adds to a living collection that, according to the garden, holds about 3,400 accessions, nearly 470 species and 69 families, including fungi, cacti, aroids, aquatic plants, gingers, bromeliads, cycads, ferns and palms. The garden's plant research focuses on the horticulture of dry-forest flora, propagation and plant physiology, and specialised collections for conservation.

The garden lies on the western side of the city, in the Cali River basin. It receives around 60,000 visitors a year, and the garden suggests allowing two to three hours. Its paths are largely unpaved and uneven, which makes them difficult for people with reduced mobility and for pushchairs.

The orchid pavilion combines well with the rest of the dry-forest circuit, the observation tower and the themed stations, among them a medicinal garden, a cactus garden and a wetland. The garden also runs workshops on growing orchids.