Canary Pine forest

Students stand above the clouds on Mount Teide

You won't be surprised to hear that the Canary Pine (Pinus canariensis) is endemic to the Canary Islands. It's rather elegant with its long bluey-green needles. As we travel up the mountain you'll notice it growing in a belt between c. 800 to 2200 metres altitude. Towards the upper end of this the trees start looking a bit stunted and sad - they become limited by winter conditions. The trees were heavily exploited for timber in the past, but more recently their value for retaining rainfall on the exposed mountain slopes was recognised, and now the forests are protected and managed differently.

Forest fires have been a problem in plantations here. However, because the environment is hot and dry, the species has evolved to be reasonably resilient to fire and most trees will survive the experience. The species has lots of traits associated with fire resistance: thick bark, long needles, large buds, a tall growth habit, deep roots, longevity, and a capacity to resprout. In fact, it produces at least some cones that show 'serotiny' - that is, they need to go through a fire before their seeds will release.

We don't stop in the forest to look at the flora and fauna particularly, but it's definitely worth keeping an eye open for some of the interesting species like the Canary Islands juniper, and the blue chaffinches.

Descriptions of species from this habitat.

Wandering amongst the Canary Pine trees