Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria
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Nature

Observing Nature: Turmero peludo

Turmero peludo

Scientific name: ‘Helianthemum’                                   

Common name: Turmero peludo

Family: ‘Cistaceae’       

Genus: ‘Helianthemum’

Endemic to: Los Hornos or Inagua Mountain, Gran Canaria

Other location: Viera & Clavijo Botanical Gardens

Description: Plant species considered in danger of extinction in the National Catalogue of Species under Threat and in need of a recovery plan. It is a woody shrub that can reach a height of 1 metre, deciduous and with white to yellow flowers. It is exclusively endemic to Gran Canaria with one sole known population in the southwest of the island, on Los Hornos or Inagua Mountain, inside the Nublo Country Park within the Inagua Natural Reserve. It grows in shady damp clearings in the pine woods at an altitude of between 1100 and 1400 metres. The wild population is to be found inside an old hunters’ refuge, now covered by the Law for Natural Spaces in the Canaries, within the Nublo Country Park. It is also cultivated 'ex-situ’ in the Viera & Clavijo Botanical Gardens. The flowers are highly visible, two centimetres in diameter, and appear from May to July with fruit appearing between June and August. It reproduces by seeds which are abundant in the fruit. The main threats to its survival are herbivores given the critically small size of the wild population.