Botanising the Canary Islands – La Palma and La Gomera

La Palma

Euphorbia canariensis - reminiscent of organ pipes

It gave me a considerable thrill as our plane descended into La Palma to notice the Canary Island Spurge growing on hillsides. It was in December 2002 when my wife and I made our first visit to the Canary Islands. We had been intending to go to India, but a period of intense internal religious conflict made that trip impossible. At very short notice, we needed to find somewhere for a holiday. A stunning photograph in a brochure of the Caldera de Taburiente decided us, we chose La Palma.

Our first experiences in La Palma were not as happy as they might have been. On the coach taking us to where we were to stay, I asked our tour operations representative about car hire. She gave the opinion that she doubted whether it would be possible. Our spirits took a further dive when the site of the hotel was indicated to us. It was a hotel with a beach, surrounded for miles by acre after acre of banana plantations. Luckily at the hotel reception, car hire presented no problems, so the next morning we had a car to take us around the island.

In many people’s eyes, looking for roadside plants while driving is far from a good idea, and my wife was strongly of this opinion. Although I was confident that looking out for endemics while negotiating tight, hairpin bends was quite safe, she was not. [She still isn't]

One species I did spot from the car in some quantity in an area of woodland was the orchid Habenaria tridactylites which was in fine flower.

Habenaria tridactylites

After I had taken a good series of photos, we drove towards the southern end, where the most recent volcanic activity on the island had taken place. The vegetation was just recovering on the black volcanic ash, and a plant I was particularly pleased to see was Ceropegia hians.

Paying Homage to Lotus berthelotii

Arid habitat above the sea near San Isidro

It was fairly early in our holiday in Tenerife that my wife and I decided we should go and visit Vilaflor to try and see Lotus berthelotii.  I say try to see, since I did not know whether the time we were there was its flowering season, and the information we had received might not have been taking this into account. The first part of the journey was along the motorway that connects Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the airport and the south east of the island. My wife Amanda was map reading, and indicated where we should leave the motorway, and strike up into the hills.

The road we took was not busy and soon after we had started climbing, we passed through some interesting, dry habitat where there was a very convenient parking place. The area was close to the sea, and as well as being arid, had a considerable maritime influence. The first species I found belonged to Lotus, a genus I am particularly interested in. Although common and usually in maritime habitats, it was nonetheless good to find Lotus glaucus in reasonable quantities. Frankenia capitata also added to maritime species as did Aizoon canariense, a maritime species that is not typical of its family Aizoaceae.

Lotus glaucus. Near the village of San Isidro

Frankenia capitata. Coastal species from near San Isidro

Aizoon canariense. Canary Islands, coastal endemic