Wildflowers, trees and shrubs in the Algarve

Lathyrus cicera

Pale Flax

Yellow Anemone

Vicia benghalensis

Yellow Lupins

Dyer's Alkanet

Spotted Rockrose

Honeywort

Paper-white Narcissus

Barbary Nut

Almond Blossom

Hottentot Fig

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Some of the most enduring images of the Algarve for those who visit in spring and early summer (from January through to the end of May) are the displays of wildflowers. They are everywhere, from the clifftops which tower over the beaches, through the barrocal (the coastal strip behind the Algarve's magnificent beaches), in the river valleys and right up into the mountain pastures and woodlands. Every little bit of uncondsidered roadside land is home to numerous species of these tough and opportunistic plants.

Halmium ocymoides one of the rockroses of the Algarve. Picture: Rob Petley-Jones

The relatively small Mediterranean climate regions are home to a massive 20 per cent of the planet's plant species and the Algarve simply underlines the point - the abundance and diversity of plant species found there are mind-boggling.

If you are there at the right time you hardly need to get into your car and make a journey to see the wild flowers as you might in the UK or the more northerly countries of Europe. Instead, just take a short stroll from your hotel or holiday villa and you'll find them in their thousands. The most common species to inhabit the roadsides are the lovely Crown Daisies, thistles, fumitories, various types of convolvulus, asphodels and even some prized plants that we go to great lengths to cultivate in our own gardens such as beautiful blue Borage.

Walk a little further to some abandoned farm terraces and you could be in for a real treat. If not too heavily grazed by goats and sheep, these pockets of land are home to some of the many wild orchid species that grow in the Algarve, along with other pretty flowers such as Algarve Toadflax, Bellardia, wild Gladiolus and many brightly coloured members of the pea (Fabaceae) family of plants.

In the hills, river valleys and mountains behind the coastal strip there are pastures and woodlands with carpets of flowers which begin in spring with the flowering of narcissi, scillas, irises and other spring bulbs and then follow on with daisies, catchflies, foxgloves, clovers and deep purple-blue buglosses.

Mountain pastures are carpeted with wild flowers in springtime.

From April onwards the vast colonies of the various species of cistus to occur in the Algarve are real attention grabbers, but well before they start flowering many other beautiful shrubs and trees are in full bloom. Several types of acacia trees, with their bright yellow frothy flowers, flourish throughout the region and compete early on with the famous Strawberry Tree the fruits of which are used by the Portuguese to make a powerful spirit. Almond trees are probably the first of the trees to flower in the Algarve and we have even seen their beautiful flowers as early as January in warm years. These trees are remnants of the Portuguese Almond producing industry of former years, and although marzipan remains a favourite sweet in the Algarve today, nearly all the almonds used in its production are imported from outside the country. Beware of eating almonds from neglected trees because the nuts have a much higher concentration of cyanide than those on well cared-for trees, a fact which becomes evident the moment you bite into one! Pistachio trees are also quite common in the Algarve although we have not found any bearing nuts so far. Another beautiful shrub that lights up the side of the road in spring, is the Castor Oil plant which has dark reddish-green leaves and dark red flowers. It grows to several metres in height and is really quite unmistakeable.

List of wildflowers in the Algarve

Other wildlflower resources for Portugal
www.flora-on.pt

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