Some Madeira Island flora

[Maggi Young]

Just a reminder that there are a number of images taken on the beautiful island of Madeira on the following link:-

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1023.0

A timely reminder, Cliff.... and the nearest you showed to a ditch was this.......

[Michael]

Hello
Here are some more pictures taken on the "tropical" Madeira island, last month...



































I hope you enjoyed them

Michael.

[David Shaw]

That's sna' - in Madeira? I never knew that it snowed there. I see that one of the climbers is carrying an ice axe indicating that snow and ice is a regular winter feature, is it?
At one time I was tempted to ask about house prices in Madeira but don't think I will now.
Many thanks for the fascinating pictures, Michael.

[ranunculus]

Beautiful images, Michael ... where exactly were you please?

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks Michael, it really is a beautiful island.  Great to see your super images.

[Armin]

Wow!
Superb images Michael.
Want to echo David. Is snow and ice a regular winter feature in Madeira?

[mark smyth]

Did you walk through the mountains to get to the house? I wouldnt walk along that path cut in the mountain side

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Very unexpected but truly wonderful pix Michael !  Superb !!!
Thanks for showing !

[Michael]

Hi!

Thanks for the comments!

David and Anthony, it snows here almost every year, always on the highest peaks only. The bad thing is that the snow is short lasting (1 to 3 days at most). This year we had snow 2 or 3 times (following what i heard on the news). Anyway, when it snows like that on the mountains, it gets cool here in Funchal (15ºc day and 9º night)

Cliff, those pictures were taken at "Pico Ruivo", the tallest peak on the island with around 1800m. There are many Madeiran endemic plants growing at this altitude (wich i hope to show you pictures of them on spring), and i think it will be possible to grow these plants on Europe without protection. I also think that European alpine plants would also grow well in our mountains, right?

Did you walk through the mountains to get to the house? I wouldnt walk along that path cut in the mountain side

Mark, it is a bit dangerous, but the view is spectacular. When i first did this levada, i was a bit scared, but then i forgot it all as soon as i started to see the landscape
That house is situated in the beginning (or end depending in wich point you start) of that "levada". This is not one of the easiest levadas to do, because it has some steps, its a bit long and dangerous (almost all the pathway is between a wall and an abruptly deep cliff), but in the end it worths it all!!


So after this, i hope that you sightly change the idea about this island being only """tropical""" and warm... That is only true for the southern lowlands!!!

[Joakim B]

Great pictures.
Not what I would expect from Madeira but then You were at high altitude.
Funny You call night temps of 9C cold. This winter that is warm for Lisbon!
Mike first time I have seen any side protection on the levada.
Mark You are praying when walking here that it is a levada on the mountain side and not on the mountain slide since there are often a lot of lose rocks all over.
I have not been to this one but others and the landscape is always breathtaking.
Truly recommendable for people visiting Madeira.

All the best
Joakim

[Casalima]

Great photos, Michael!!
I knew that it snowed most years on the highest peaks of Madeira, but not quite like this!
And that cliff path is seriously scary 

A classic "not many people know that" fact is that the highest mountains in Spain and Portugal are in the Atlantic - Teide on Tenerife and Ponta do Pico on the island of Pico in the Azores. I believe that the highest point in Madeira is only slightly lower than the highest point in mainland Portugal.

Chloë
in very, very, very wet (but warm-ish) North Portugal

[Michael]

Mike first time I have seen any side protection on the levada.

Joakim, lately they have been swaping the old wooden side protections that could be rotten at the base and usually made uncatious tourists fall over, by steel protections that are a lot more safer and do not stain.

 

Great photos, Michael!!
I knew that it snowed most years on the highest peaks of Madeira, but not quite like this!
And that cliff path is seriously scary 

Yes it is scary, but you really must be there to feel the astonishment.
You know, one of my teachers once said that Madeira is one of the few places in the world where you can spend all morning having fun with snow on the mountains, and 30 minutes latter you can be swimming in the ocean and taking sun on the beach This sounds odd, but it is true!

[Paul T]

Michael,

Fascinating pictures.  Another place like it is New Zealand..... there you can travel from glaciers to dense rainforest and then swimming in the ocean, all within a half hour or so.  It is absolutely amazing!!!!!

[Ezeiza]

Hi Michael:

               Can you please comment on the local bulbs like Scilla maderensis (abundance, habitat, cold tolerance, etc.).

                When this species for instance, is available, one has to guess as to requirements. Hence its rarity under cultivation.

Thanks in advance.

[Michael]

Hello Alberto

Well Scilla maderensis is very rare in the wild. I only had seen it once, in Ribeira Brava, a small colony of around 6 bulbs or so. It inhabits the lowlands.

 Its a winter growing species, wich flowers in the Autumn and loses the leaves arond May-June. The bulb can reach 10 cm across or even more, and is deep purple-amethyst. The flowering spikes are around 30 to 60 cm tall, conical, and bear lots of purple stellate flowers.

I grow this species and in cultivation it tends to be evergreen, losing its leaves just about when the new shoots are forming, because i do not let it get totally dry in summer. It seems to like it, as it can make photosythesis during summer time, so the bulb grows even bigger!

When i acquired this plant, i even didnt knew it was a Madeiran endemic plant.

There is a variety called Scilla maderensis var melliodora, wich differs from the standard form mainly by being scented.

This variety (or subspecies) only occurs in the Selvagens Islands. I am trying to get some material of it, but its a bit complicated, as nobody is alowed to enter those islands for any purpose, other than being scientific research.

Regarding cold tolerance, i have no idea, but i am sure it can survive a light frost (the leaves would get killed for sure, but the bulb is so robust that i am sure it would survive unharmed).

Since its the water availability (and not the warmth) that seems to control the vegetative cycle of this plant, people who live in cold places can delay the watering schedule, and make it grow and flower during the spring, with the intentions of getting the bulb dormant in the Autumn, so it can be sotred during the winter months.

In opposition to many hardy bulbs that grow new roots at the beginning of their growing season, Scilla maderensis's roots are perennial, so the bulb must be stored on it's pot, or with it's roots intact. When these roots are removed or damaged, the might stale in growth for a year or more, and takes some time to recover the thick fleshy root system.

If you are interested Alberto, i would gladly provide you some seed material of this plant (the fruits just matured this week!). They grow very well from seed and have an hight rate of germination.

This also applies for other Madeiran plants that you might find interesting, as the more people growing them, the better.

Madeira is such a small territory, and cant be compared, not even by far, to the continental mainland, in means of territory. Howerer, it is the homeland of many species of plants and animals that occur nowhere else in the world, like any other isolated insular territory.

Relatively to the mainland, Madeira has only been colonized very recently, around 600 years or so, and it's frightening to notice how the natural landscape changed in such a short amount of time, specially in the last 100 years...

I guess the vegetation from the lowlands is the most menaced of all, and i can assure you that in the next 150 years, or probably sooner, due to human development, the natural habitat of things such as Scilla maderensis and Musschia aurea amongst many others, will no longer exist, consequently these species will vanish. If you take into account the time scale, 150 years is already tomorrow!! I guess the only way these plants can be saved is through cutivation.

By the way, here are some pictures of my plant, unfortunately the flowering season was already on the end by the time they were token.