Edible plants: Fennel

Fennel in bloom

Fennel with its aniseed aroma and feathery foliage has got to be one of my favourite herbs. It grows wild in Tenerife in many places too and I can't pass by a clump of the plant without being able to resist eating some of its fresh leaves or the very tasty seeds. I simply cannot end up crushing some of it up in my hand and inhaling the wonderful perfume. I love Fennel!

Fennel is one of many common wild flowers that is edible and nutritious. It is a herb that foragers would look out for. Of course, when gathering wild plants to eat or use in herbal medicine it is vitally important to be able to identify those that are safe to consume. There are some plants out there that can make us very sick and some that can be lethal. Some relatives on the Fennel in the Apiaceae or Parsley family come into this dangerous category. Fools Parsley and Hemlock are tow of the deadly ones.  Fortunately Fennel is very easy to identify. It has a distinctive aroma that poisonous plants that look a bit like it do not have. That is one way of checking if you have found a true Fennel: crush some of the leaves or flowers and see if there is a pleasant perfume that reminds you of Anise.

Fennel grows on waste ground, in grassy places and by the sea. It is often found in large clumps and its fine feathery foliage and tall flowering stems are what to look out for.

You can read more here: Edible plants: Fennel

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.

Frogs need saving too

I have loved frogs ever since I was a little boy so the news that they are disappearing is very sad to hear. Fortunately a charity has been set up in America called Save The Frogs, and as its name suggests, it is all about frog and amphibian conservation.
As many as a third of the frog species in the world are endangered and some types have already become extinct. The frogs are dying out due to a combination of lack of habitat, water pollution, a deadly chytrid fungus disease, predation by invasive species, over-collection by humans and Climate Change. Pesticides and herbicides like Atrazine and Roundup are taking a heavy toll. Many frogs get run over by heavy traffic on roads that the animals have to cross to get to and from their spawning sites.
It is really sad to know that these amazing animals are dying out in many places, often due to human behaviour that is destroying the habitat of these amphibians. Conservationists are working on saving the frogs but a worldwide effort is really needed.
All children love to see tadpoles and to watch the amazing transformation into tiny froglets. Frog spawn and tadpoles used to be such a normal thing to see in ponds in parks, gardens and the countryside but sadly this is no longer the case in many places. Something must be done to give the little creatures their chance at survival.

Find out more here about what you can do to help: Frogs need saving too

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.

Tenerife News of the environment that doesn't get reported

Dried up pond in Erjos, March 2012. Photo by Steve Andrews

Tenerife News media are not reporting much about a number of environmental issues affecting the island. The worst problem is the ongoing drought that is drying up everything and killing vegetation that shrivels in the heat.  Ponds are dried up or in the process of drying up and reservoirs are very low. Unless the island has heavy rainfall soon this will mean disaster for farmers. In Erjos, where the ponds are a real haven for wildlife, most of the water has dried up leaving cracked and caking mud to bake in the heat. Water birds such as Coots and Moorhens will have to fly away in search of a new home unless the rains fall soon.

Besides the drought problem, pine forests are losing trees killed by bark beetles and the island's Dragon Trees are under attack by a species of scale insect. There are dead and dying trees to be seen all around the island. This is a sign that all is not well at all, and yet so few people seem to notice or care and the local media is not reporting these matters.

Tenerife relies on tourists coming here and a main attraction that the island offers besides the sunshine and beaches is its incredible countryside. The forests are a big part of this but Canary Pines are under attack and many are dead. Bark beetles are killing them and others were severely damaged by approaching hurricane force winds that battered Tenerife back in the winter of 2010.

Tenerife News of the environment that doesn't get reported

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.

Teide Violet and other endangered wild flowers found on Mt Teide

Tajinaste Rojo (Echium wildpretii) Photo by Steve Andrews

Tenerife's Mt Teide is the highest mountain in the Canary Islands, and the highest mountain in all of Spain. Its very great height and volcanic nature have created unique environments in which some very rare plant species grow.

The Tenerife highlands are a real paradise for botanists who can hunt for rarities on the slopes of the mountain and the rocky scrub-land that is exposed to extremes in temperature and sunlight. Mt Teide usually has snow on its peak in winter, though none has fallen this year so far in the ongoing drought. Extremes of heat and cold and the very barren volcanic terrain offers a very unique habitat for the flora and fauna that live high on the mountain ranges. It can be freezing by night and baking hot by day and yet there are mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and many wild flowers and shrubs that live on Mt Teide's highlands.

Some plants such as the Teide Violet (Viola cheiranthifolia) and the Red Viper's Bugloss (Echium wildpretii) or Tajinaste Rojo are not found growing in the wild anywhere else in the world. These are two of the endemic rarities that can be found on Mt Teide. The Teide Violet is found very high on the mountain where no other plants are growing. The Red Viper’s Bugloss grows at lower levels near the Tourist Centre and hotel as well as by where the cable-car leaves from. This unusual flower, with its tall flowering spikes of red is often photographed and is the subject of paintings of Mt Teide.

Teide Violet and other endangered wild flowers found on Mt Teide

Aluna the Movie | Homepage

The Kogi tribe from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain in Columbia were in a documentary made by Alan Ereira entitled From The Heart of the World. It was shown back in 1990 and the Kogi gave a warning to the world that ecological disaster would happen unless we changed our ways. They have made a follow-up film entitled Aluna which will be screened in 2012.

The Kogi call themselves the "Elder Brother" and the rest of the world they refer to as the "Younger Brother". They believe they are the spiritual guardians of the planet and that our ways have put it in danger of ecological disaster. The Younger Brother failed to listen to their warning. The Kogi Mamas, who are the spiritual leaders or shamans of the tribe, had warned that we must stop mining, cutting down forests, drilling in the ground, creating dams, and other developments that are destroying the environment, but their warning has not been heeded.

The Kogi Mamas are experts in determining the health of the ecosystem they live in, and not only where they are but for the whole world. They could see that Climate Change was robbing the mountain peaks of the snow and ice that should be there. Without the water that comes from the melting snow and from the rains that the clouds bring they know that all life will die.

The Kogi believe that the world will come to an end unless the Younger Brother changes his ways and soon. Because they are so worried about the state of the planet they have agreed to make this second film to explain their views about the extreme environmental danger that has been created.

Aluna the Movie | Homepage

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.

Death on Mt Teide

Dead and dying vegetation on Mt Teide 11 January 2012

A dramatic title to grab your attention but I mean death to plants and probably animals too in the ongoing drought Tenerife is suffering! The higher reaches of Mt Teide, the highest mountain in Spain are normally covered in snow at this time of year and the island has usually had heavy rain from November onwards but not this time. Mt Teide did not receive is normal coating of white glistening snow that can be usually counted on for the winter and spring months. Something has gone very wrong!

The unique scrub-land vegetation that grows on Mt Teide is adapted to heat and cold and drought in summer but expects to get plenty of moisture in the autumn and winter. This year it has had very little and is dying or dead. It is brown and tinder dry and crumbles to dust. In turn insects that depend on the vegetation and lizards and birds that feed on them are deprived of a vital link in the food chain. There are usually many Canary Blue butterflies and honeybees that feed on the nectar from the wild flowers and flowering shrubs up on Mt Teide but if there are no such flowers they will have no food and will probably die.

Lower down the mountain there is usually a sea of clouds that bring much needed moisture to the pines, laurels and other trees and plants but even the sea of clouds has gone.

This could spell disaster for farmers. Most of the water for the island falls as snow and rain on the mountains. We need heavy rains and fast to save the ecosystem of Tenerife.

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.

How does Global Warming affect Tenerife?

Wilting Prickly Pear cactus

Global Warming or Climate Change, as it is now often called, though I prefer the former term, is making its presence felt here in Tenerife where clear skies and hot sunshine are drying up the land and causing plants as tough as Prickly Pear cacti to shrivel and wilt.

Wilted and curled up House-leek (Aeonium urbicum) 

Succulent House-leeks (Aeonium species) which should be at their best now and getting ready to flower or already doing so are suffering the same problem. Many House-leeks are curling up their leaves in an effort to conserve moisture. They should be fleshy and green not reddened and dried up with curling leaves.
Usually by January we have had plenty of torrential rainfall in November and December that falls as snow high up on Mt Teide. Often the mountain's peak is covered in glistening white over the Christmas period and for the months afterwards but not this winter.
Usually in late autumn and winter the countryside springs to live and brown and barren semi-desert land and volcanic mountainsides get covered in green vegetation but not so this season. Ponds, of which there is a great shortage on Tenerife, are drying up not filling up. Those in the village of Erjos that normally fill in winter with enough to last them through until the following autumn's rains are looking more like they do at the end of summer.
So what does all this mean? Well, for tourists the hot sunshine is what they come here for so they will not be complaining but for farmers and for wildlife it is an ecological disaster. Rainfall in autumn and winter is essential for the success of crops and in recent years many farmers have lost their grape crops despite winter rains. Drought in summer is far more to be expected than drought in January!
Tenerife really needs some thunderstorms and as much torrential rain as possible over the rest of this month and February or I dread to think how the island will get through this. Some people still don't believe Global Warming is really happening but I think the state of the countryside in Tenerife shows that it most certainly is!

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.