A floristic inventory of the Esmeralda Forest which is the last relictual forest in the bank of the Cauca River in the department of Caldas is presented. Random walks were carried out inside the forest and through its edges collecting fertile samples of every growth habit. Two-hundred-sixteen (216) morphospecies (30 ferns lycophytes, 18 basal angiosperms, 49 monocots, and 119 eudicots) were recorded. The most diverse families were Fabaceae (16), Melastomataceae and Rubiaceae (12) in the eudicotyledonae, Araceae (17) and Orchidaceae (11) in the monocots, Piperaceae (9) in basal angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae (7) and Pteridaceae (5) in the ferns. The most diverse genera were Piper (9), Anthurium and Thelypteris (5), Miconia, * FR: 12-III-2012. FA: 25-XI-2013. 1 Jardin Botanico de Meise, Bouchout Domain, Nieuwelaan 38, 1860, Meise, Belgica. E-mail: dav.sanin@gmail.com 2 Grupo de investigacion Biodiversidad y Recursos Fitogeneticos, Herbario Universidad de Caldas -FAUC-. 3 E-mail: andresierra25@gmail.com, 4 E-mail: juan.posada87@gmail.com, 5 E-mail: ramirez.g.juliana@gmail.co ISSN 0123-3068 bol.cient.mus.hist.nat. 18 (1), enero-junio, 2014. 17-45 COMO CITAR: SANIN, D., SIERRA-GIRALDO, J.A., POSADA-HERRERA, J.M. & RAMIREZ-G., J., 2014.Inventario floristico de los bosques de La Esmeralda, margen del rio Cauca (Chinchina, Caldas, Colombia). Bol. Cient. Mus. Hist. Nat. U. de Caldas, 18 (1): 17-45. bo l.c ie nt .m us .h ist .n at . 1 8 (1 ) e ne ro ju ni o 20 14 . 1 7 4 5 David Sanin et al. 18 Clidemia, Philodendron and Heliconia (4). These records characterize the transition of a forest from humid to dry forest. Eighteen new records are presented for the flora of Caldas, from which three present some category of extinction risk. Seventeen taxon cultivated in the edges and inside the forest were recorded from which 10 are neotropics nonnative, reason why their cultivation is not recommended. These results present arguments for the ordering of these ecosystems in which the generation of a legal protection strategy for the forests takes precedence.