They call the temperate rainforest in the coastal mountains near Valdivia, Chile a jungle, though that’s not exactly right. It’s more like a lost world.
Patches of this forest remained free of ice during the last ice age, so its flora is like a time capsule to another time of the earth. Many of the plants here more closely resembles plants in New Zealand than other parts of Chile, while the fauna includes rare creatures like Darwin’s frog, puma, and pudú. Lush and wet, this region, especially in the vicinity of Parque Oncol, receives as much as 4600 mm of rain each year.
For as long as I have known Rodolfo Guzmán of the Santiago restaurant Boragó, he has been talking excitedly about this ecoregion. Rich in biodiversity, his menu is often dotted with ingredients from this part of Chile.
“Valdivia represents the gateway to Patagonia. You see it in the ingredients you find,” says Guzmán. “Oncol is like a cold, rainy jungle.”
There is a high concentration of ingredients favored by the Mapuche, such as the abundance of wild fruits like murta (Ugni molinae), nicknamed Chilean guava, which matures between March and May. There’s also honey made from the flower nectar and pollen of ulmo trees (Eucryphia cordifolia) and numerous types of mushrooms. Quila (Chusquea quila), the Chilean heart of palm, which is nothing like pupunha or chonta in Brazil or Peru, also grows here. “It’s not about flavor, just about texture,” says Guzmán. “You put in mouth and it disappears.” There is not enough to go around, so foragers in the are experimenting with the sprouts, covering them with fallen leaves to speed growth.