Resumen

The territory of the tropical Andes shows great richness of species that are fundamental in the provision of ecosystem services associated with water, climate regulation, and carbon capture and storage. The plants community of the Covadonga reserve, located in the Municipality of Sesquilé, Cundinamarca (Colombia), was characterized for this study. A land cover and a land use map were generated using the Corine Land Cover methodology, which highlighted the presence of shrubs and bushes, clear-cut grasslands, and dense natural forest. In each of the coverages, 10 transects of 50x2 m (100 m2) were established and all individuals with DBH ≥ 2.5 cm were registered. A total of 2497 individuals were found: 2116 from the shrub cover, of which only 209 had a DBH ≥ 2.5 cm, and 381 individuals in the forest cover, of which 131 had DBH ≥ 2.5 cm. The families with the highest number of species were Asteraceae, Ericaceae, Melastomataceae, Fabaceae, and Cunoniaceae. The species with the highest ecological importance index (EII) in the shrub and forest cover were Diplostephium rosmarinifolium and Clidemia sp. The behavior of the height and diameter classes concentrated the greatest number of individuals in the first height and diameter intervals as an indicator of high regeneration in the covers. It is considered a contribution to the knowledge of the flora of the high Andean forest in the Central region of Colombia in its ecological and taxonomic aspect, as a support for the conservation of natural resources.