Inventario florístico de los Complejos Arqueológicos Cojitambo e Ingapirca, Cañar-Ecuador

Abstract

The Cojitambo and Ingapirca Archaeological Complexes, in the province of Cañar, are separated in a straight line by approximately 25.5 km2. Cojitambo is a hill, formed by an extensive complex of ruins, of Inca occupation in the 1500s, made up of canted blocks in andesite rock, probably of military and religious character, it is located at the coordinates 02°45.41’S-78°53.16’W, 2982 m. The Ingapirca is an Inca-Cañari construction, meaning “Inca Wall”, built at the beginning of the XVI century, it is presumed to have been a place of worship to the sun, the maximum Inca god, it has an extension of four hectares, it is located in the coordinates 02°32. 26’S-78°52.20’W, 3026 m, vegetation formation Matorral húmedo montano and Matorral seco montano, 11 Km from the Azogues canton. In order to identify and know the flora of the archaeological complexes, in December 2019 and March 2020, a sweep of the flora and photographs were taken in situ, the botanical specimens previously pressed and preserved in industrial alcohol were transferred to Quito for the subsequent process of drying, cataloguing and taxonomic identification in the QAP and QCNE herbaria; Sorensen’s Similarity Index was calculated. The beta diversity of the two archaeological complexes totals 170 plant species, and their similarity corresponds to 28% of resemblance. In Cojitambo, 106 species, 96 genera, 51 families, 3 divisions: 1 Lycopodiophyta, 4 Polypodiophyta and 101 Magnoliophyta; 5 habits: 61 herbs, 34 shrubs, 5 trees, 2 sub-shrubs and 4 veins; 3 status: 4 introduced, 86 native and 16 endemic (15%); the most frequent families are: Asteraceae (23 species), Orchidaceae (9), Bromeliaceae, Lamiaceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae and Solanaceae with 4 species each, the rest of the families have between 1 and 2 species. Asteraceae is the most frequent and has the highest number of endemics. In Ingapirca, 94 vascular species were recorded, corresponding to 80 genera, 43 families, 3 divisions: 4 Polypodiophyta, one Pinophyta, 70 Magnoliophyta; 7 habits: 59 herbs, 17 shrubs, five trees, four subshrubs, five vines, three epiphytes and one fruit tree. Of the species found 19 are introduced, 66 are native and 9 are endemic (10%); the most frequent families are: Asteraceae (15 species), Solanaceae (15), Poaceae (6), Fabaceae, Orchidaceae (5), Lamiaceae (4), and the rest between 1 and 2 species, 9 endemic. These results contribute to the conservation and protection of native and endemic plants, and support archaeological-ecological tourism in the two complexes.