brazil is a country blessed with natural wonders - from its striking mountains to its tropical rainforest, the continent is carpeted with beautiful flora, amidst intriguing fauna - incredibly, of the 315,000 known species of flora in the world; about 55,000 of them are endemic to brazil.

as one of brazil's most exotic locations, rio de janeiro has no shortage of fascinating flora and fauna - in fact in its tropical atlantic coast, about 5000 species of vascular plants occur, with nearly 80 % of them endemic to the region.