Recuperación de la flora documentada en el Códice de la Cruz-Badiano para la implementación de una paleta vegetal nativa para la Ciudad de México
Authors:   , Chávez Bucio Guadalupe Berenice 
Published: September 2024

The term culture refers to the body of knowledge, practices and lifestyles of a given social group, which manifest themselves in the territory in a material or intangible way. In this sense, it is possible to recognize that an element that shapes Mexican culture and the landscape of ancient Mexico is the wealth of natural elements such as flora that, in addition to ecosystem services, has endowed the Mexican population with identity since ancient times As evidence and as documentation, plant remains have been found in gardens, codices, objects, poetry, sacred literature, among others, where it is possible to identify the importance of flora since the beginning of human existence, in acts of everyday life, agricultural cycles, time counting, ritual ceremonies and even war. In orientation towards Codices, which means "handwritten book" and refers to a pictorial document whose content is a product of Mesoamerican cultures, some research has proposed a classification based on the place of origin, the time, the material of elaboration, the format and the content, giving as result: Mayan codices, of the Borgia Group, of Oaxaca and mexicas or of the Center of Mexico. Within the Mexican or Central Mexican Codices whose elaboration is attributed to the colonial era, is the Cruz-Badiano Codex of which physical characteristics such as format, content, language, technique of representation, type of paper used, among others, they reflect Mexican culture, knowledge and mestizo ideology. In seeking medicinal remedies to cure various diseases and diseases both physical and spiritual based on plants, animals and minerals, the Codex of the Cruz-Badiano has been the object of interest of many researchers who have dedicated themselves to the identification of the plant species mentioned there. This information has been useful for the development of projects, mainly herbalist, in which some of the plants already identified are recovered. For this research, 54 of the plant species already identified have been selected, for the proposal of a native plant palette that covers the needs of garden and landscape projects at CDMX. The selection of these species has been based mainly on the presence of plants under current environmental conditions in this part of the territory. On the basis of the above, technical sheets have been prepared for each plant species with information such as: name in Nahuatl and translation into Spanish, scientific and common name, botanical family, type of distribution, if it is found in a wild or cultivated way; current use or uses; biological form; the type of vegetation where found, climate and soil type optimal for growth; whether aquatic or terrestrial habitat; if it affects other plant species or has any toxicity to living and/or human beings; and the ecosystem or environmental services it provides. Finally, the 54 plant species have been classified according to their biological form, territorial status, their use or current uses, phenological cycle; foliage and flower hues and those that attract pollinators; in order to make the selection of each species more accessible according to the requirements of the project in question.