Jardines Botanicos, Puerto de la Cruz
Several buses take you to El Botanico - up the hill to the botanic gardens. There are trees from everywhere in the tropics/semi tropics, lots of palms trees, ferns, bamboos and several exotic plants : bromeliads, heliobores. The whole place is criss crossed with small paths set out in geometric form .. very narrow and slightly claustrophobic. At the top of the gardens there is a pond with lilies with great view of Mt Teide. Quite a relaxing and special place.
More information at : www.step.es/jardcan/
________________________________________________________
Lord Howe Banyan tree
The highlight was a huge tree .. the sign says it is Ficus Macrophyluss (Lord Howe). I tried to get a photograph of it, but like so much of these gardens .. there was not enough space.
[ subsequent research reveals that it is a type of banyan .. ]
_____________________________________________________________
On Lord Howe Island (east of New Guinea) grows another large banyan, Ficus macrophylla var. columnaris. According to I.J. Condit (Ficus: The Exotic Species, 1969), single large tree may cover more than one acre. In 1874, Ferdinand von Mueller, director of the Melbourne Botanic Garden, described this species as "One of the most magnificent productions in the whole empire of plants...The pendulous air roots, when they touch the ground, gradually swell into columns of the same dimensions as the older ones which have already become converted into stems, so that it is not apparent which was the original trunk; ...and thus it is impossible to say whence the tree comes or whither it goes."
The fine print
Date of travel : September 2006
Country information : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife
What next?
Return to Home Go to next entry