Tajinaste rojo, the blood of Teide

Plants seem otherworldly, primitive, antediluvian, aliens, strange, fingers of blood coming out of the lava and pointing toward the sun. Excited and impressed to see them for the first time in full bloom. The memory left is indelible in the mind, never to be forgotten. They are a great spectacle of nature, lush plants like giants compared to other plants that grow in the huge crater, almost all at ground level. They are not afraid of anything, not the wind, or drought, or the hot midday sun, or cold alpine night. Proud to stand up to the sky sometimes exceed three meters in height. They are the red Tajinastes of Teide, the blood of Teide, the pride of Tenerife. 

Its scientific name, Echium wildpretii subsp. wildpretii, was given by British botanists Pearson and Hook in honor of Hermann Wildpret Swiss horticulturist who lived in La Orotava in the nineteenth century. Belongs to the family Boraginaceae. It grows on the slopes of the crater of Mount Teide in full sun, on the gravel and volcanic rocks at 2,000 feet. (I recommend to enlarge the pictures with a double click to appreciate its spectacular beauty.) 

The first time I saw five years ago and struck me. They came to me as a great gift of nature, an explosion of beauty in its purest form. My heart pounded and my eyes watered at the sight great. I do not practice any religion, but I could not help me to come to mind the first phrase of a religious oration in Latin that in my childhood I learned to be an altar boy: GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO, ie, Glory to God in the highest. Thank you creative force, god almighty, cosmic energy, supreme being, what are you, thank you for allowing me to see this wonder of nature. My long journey from the distant Mediterranean has been worthwhile. 

Seeing these impressive herbs we can imagine what must have felt the first generations of Guanches when newcomers from the African coast with its original Berber culture, first saw the red tajinastes. It is possible they worshiped them as gods, the gods of Teide that, when were angry, they roaring and spitting fire and, when they were happy, they poked his red fingers through the lava for men to worship them and offer them blood sacrifices. 

Always starts flowering around May 10 and reaches its peak a week later and lasted until early June. Some years, early or delayed a few days as did more or less cold in winter. Other crater plants flower at the same time as Descurainia bourgaeana with its magnificent yellow flowers. Both are endemic to the subalpine zone of the Cañadas del Teide.

Its seeds carried by wind and water germinate on the volcanic soil rich in mineral nutrients and lead to a small plant in a rosette of leaves linear-lanceolate, very hairy, adapted to cold alpine scorching heat and drought . For several years the rosette grows larger and accumulating nutrients and water in their roots.

When the red tajinaste reaches maturity its central bud grows up and produces a long inflorescence with flower buds covered by leaves more and more smaller.

The red Tajinastes were nearly extinct by the intense pressure of livestock grazing by the Cañadas del Teide and eat the rosettes of tender leaves. The Canary Islands Government had to ban livestock grazing around the Teide National Park and since then the species has recovered to the point that it is not included in the Catalogue of Species of Canarian Endangered Flora. 

Echium wildpretii species has two subspecies, the intensely red flowers of Tenerife, Echium wildpretii subsp. wildpretii and subspecies endemic to the island of La Palma of pink flowers, Echium wildpretii subsp. trichosiphon called Pink Tajinaste, very scarce and protected by law, included in the Catalog of Canarian Protected Species. 

This photograph was taken on May 6. Here are the flower buds about to open. Like leaves, the buds are covered by trichomes as small needles that are stuck into the skin when touched. The trichomes of the leaves are less sharp. 

And finally the miracle of flowering. First open the buds facing the East. This photograph was taken on May 11. 

Also on 11 May, on a hillside sheltered from cold north wind, I found this magnificent and completely blossomed, surrounded by several endemic plants of the crucifer, Erysimum scoparium, called Alheli of Teide.

The first flowers of Red Tajinaste are extraordinary. Her blue stamens deep red highlights on the petals. 

Honeybees foraging on the abundant nectar as crazed, intoxicated. His flight from flower to flower produces a strong buzz that breaks the silence of the crater. 

If you look at the inflorescence is observed that the flowers are opening drawing an upward spiral. After flowering in summer mature seeds are dispersed by the slopes of the crater and wait patiently for the first autumn rains to germinate.

And like all living things reach the end, death. The proud inflorescence of about three meters dries and the wind falls down the corpse to the ground. It is a sad reminder of what once was one of the most beautiful plants of Tenerife. 

Even dead, red tajinaste is showing us the beauty of the structure of its inflorescence. Each flower leaves a mark on the dry bark. 

A close up allows us to appreciate the design in the form of crocodile skin. Nature never ceases to amaze. 

A new generation of red Tajinastes grows at the foot of the corpse of its mother. I gotta go. Other Tenerife wonderful plants waiting for me. I take a great treasure photo on my camera, the best of memories. Before getting into the car I turn around and I promise this little plant that one day back to admire the beauty of their children or their grandsons. And back emotion my heart will accelerate as the massacred Guanches were thrilled at what they believed gods emerged from the lava. 

The Slug-Snail and Hymenophyllum tunbrigense, two links in evolution

I woke up early to go walking along the Pijaral Trail in the Parque Rural de Anaga, in the far north of the island of Tenerife, which leads to the impressive Roque de Anambro. My greatest motivation to tour it was to find and see for the first time in my life one of the most primitive ferns Planet, Hymenophyllum tunbrigense. This tiny and transparent fern, halfway between a moss and fern, was for me an unresolved for many years.

The trail was wet, slippery and gloom, completely covered by the thick canopy of endemic tree heather, Erica platycodon, which let in only a small ray of light. I had the feeling of walking through a tunnel plant. It was cold and the air was saturated with moisture, because the entire park was covered by a thick fog in continuous movement that rose rapidly from the sea, collided with the tops of the trees and shrubs of laurel forest that covers the entire Massif Anaga, was entering through the leaves and branches and their passage was spray impregnated with everything he touched. And condensed into fresh water from a high purity, falling drop by drop upon the volcanic soil to form small ponds and a creek. I was fully immersed in Macaronesian horizontal rain phenomenon.

Not to slip and dodge the puddles was looking under his feet, which prevented me from noticing the stems of heather, Hymenophyllum preferred habitat. Soon afterwards I felt slightly dizzy as my eyes went from my feet to the trunks of each side and again to my feet, hundreds of times, all spiced by high humidity, low light and the cold wind that I was in the left side of the face. In one of my steps I had to give a little jump to avoid stepping on a black critters. I bent down to see them better and my surprise was great. Hybrids appeared to slug and snail, ie slugs with a snail shell under the skin of his abdomen. Uauuuu, interesting little creatures, I thought. And of course I took my camera to take them as souvenirs.

In the Visitor Center Parque Rural de Anaga I told one of the technicians on this slug-snail and immediately he knew I was talking about the endemic Plutonia lamarckii. They even have a large poster of endemic invertebrates where it leaves a picture of this little animal. Double click on the photo for appreciate better the details.

 The Plutonia lamarckii is a link in evolution, an intermediate step between a slug and a snail, which has been left half way and continues unchanged for millions of years. You may need a few million more years to take the next step and become a spiral outer shell. Certainly remains unchanged simply because it feels very comfortable as it is, is perfectly adapted to the laurel forests and has no need to change your body. Any environmental circumstance forces him at all. Living things evolve only forced by changes in their habitat. This is the famous Darwinian principle: Either you adapt or you die and disappear from the face of the Earth. The habitat of the snail-shell Canary has not changed in millions of years. No need to evolve. And is perfectly adapted to its environment.

As it grows, the shell that protects your digestive system and other vital organs, the skin of the abdomen begins to crumble, revealing part of the calcium carbonate shell.

 In this other Plutonia lamarckii is best seen spiraling shell. Its tentacles and eyes are typically snail. View and photograph this evolutionary link I am delighted, as much as the tiny ferns that I expected a few meters above the moss that covered an old heather.

 Several fronds of about 3 or 4 inches of Hymenophyllum tunbrigense. Is striking transparency. It seems that the fern and moss have evolved together, as all copies of Hymenophyllum moss growing on it, which is not what is left but a more sparse, that lives attached to the bark of Erica platycodon. This fern can live on dripping rocks and bleak with the condition that it be lined with moss symbiont.

His name is composed of two Greek words together: Hymen = hymen membrane and phyllon = leaf, or plant with thin leaves as hymen membrane and a Latinized English word, tunbrigense, ie, Tunbridge Wells, City Kent, southeast England, for being the place where it was first described.

Hymenophyllum tunbrigense colony, sometimes consisting of hundreds of fronds, all united by a long, branched rhizome that grows very thin layer embedded in moss, glued to turn on the cracked bark of tree heather. The condensed water on the tops of the trees down the bark, moisten the moss layer which acts like a sponge and so the rhizome of Hymenophyllum obtained permanent moisture it needs.

Some sori crowded fronds produce spores. This photo shows the moisture soaks the frond. The ferns, like the slug, snail, is another intermediate link in evolution. His appearance, size and transparency in him little different from a moss, such as Fissidens asplenioides, with which is very similar. They live in very damp and gloomy.

Several fronds of the moss Fissidens asplenioides photographed in a very dark dripping rock on the island of Faial in the Azores Archipelago. It is surprising resemblance to the Hymenophyllum tunbrigense.

When Hymenophyllum spores are mature, the leaflets of the sori are opened and the wind helped disperse. If they are lucky and fall on the moss symbiont, whether covering the bark of a dripping rock heather, germinate and re-start their life cycle.

 Striking and majestic Roque de Anambro of 815 m. high at the top of the trail along the Pijaral. One has the impression of looking at a giant. His vision is not suitable for rapid, since at this point the trail is very narrow, to the left is a deep vertical cliff that ends in the sea, all of it covered by trees of laurel and right a thick forest with a steep slope. It's like balancing on a knife edge of rock, whose tip is the Roque. His image is an unforgetable memory.