The highest point in the central section is the Piedras Blancas peak at 4,729 metres (15,515 ft), surrounded by extensive páramos, glaciers and lakes.

[7] The Cordillera de Merida páramo ecoregion is in the neotropical realm, in the montane grasslands and shrublands biome.

[8] The Andes began to rise in the Miocene epoch, but in the north did not reach their present height until the Pliocene during a period of strong volcanic activity between four and five million years ago.

This was the period when land rose above the tree line and the protopáramo vegetation was formed with new species of the Poaceae, Cyperecear, Arteraceae, Ericaceae and other families.

The Cordillera de Mérida is the oldest part of the northern Andes, and has a large connected corridor of páramo.

The range is probably where most of the páramo flora of tropical origin developed, then migrated south into Colombia during cold glacial periods.

[12] A study of Carabid beetles found diverse and numerous specimens, all endemic to the ecoregion although closely related to species in other ranges.