Facing the trend of rapid urbanization, conserving the biodiversity of urban green spaces is a challenge, particularly in a developing region like Latin America. In this sense, it is known that urban sacred sites have significant cultural and conservation significance within cities. However, more needs to be studied about the vegetation they house. Given the scientific gap, the composition, richness and abundance of trees in urban religious sites of Arequipa established since the 16th century were examined, and temporal changes in the composition and distribution of trees between ancient and modern sites were identified. 749 trees of 54 species were recorded in 26 religious’ sites. A higher proportion of exotic species (74%) corresponds in greater quantity to fruit trees (52%). There were no significant differences in tree richness and abundance between ancient and modern sites. Howeve...