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Spain - Ronda - Los Alcornocales Natural Park
Zuz2006-02-16 19:02:29
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At Los Alcornocales (cork oak forest) Natural Park there can be seen a mountain range where is located, at an excelent conservation state, the most important cork oak forest of the Iberian Peninsula and one of the world's most important ones. The cork oak, with its Mediterranean character, is usually "naked", that means, without its bark, because the bark's used for cork, and is one of the most representative elements of our forests and has achieved an exceptional status due to the rational use of this natural resource, exploited since ancient times.
The natural attraction of this Park does not end there, because it offers some wonderful forests, able to transfer us to sub-tropical regions that does not exist nowadays in the European Continent. The natural species of that latitude have found at this place an adequate "hidaway" where to grow. This tropical trees are located at the called «canutos», consisting of deep and narrow valleys digged by the rivers..
The Natural Park has got an extension of 170.000 Ha being its limits Tarifa at the south of the province of Cadiz and Cortes de la Frontera, at the northwest of the province of Malaga. Most of the Natural Park consists of cork oaks, and also of wild olives, gall oaks, oaks,... depending its location on the humidity conditions and also of the type of substratum. The cork oak is a typical tree of the Mediterraean, which has adquired several modifications for surviving at this climate. It has got deep roots for taking water easily and its leafs have got a strong cuticle for hiding lots of transpiration, which would mean a loss of water by the tree's surface. The cork's bark works as a shield against fire, which is important because at the Mediterranean region exists a high risk of fire durign the summer.
The bushes colonizing the hills are usually the result of the original forest's degradation, which consisted of oaks and gall oaks. Despite of this, sometimes, the
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