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Rare and endangered wild flowers of Tenerife |
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Written by Steve Andrews
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 Whilst Tenerife with its many microclimates and different types of countryside offers a fantastic number of wild flowers, bushes and trees, many of which are endemic and found nowhere else, it also has a growing number that are in severe danger of becoming extinct.
Some wild flowers are surviving because of their looks – in other words because they are thought of as having beautiful flowers they have been taken into cultivation and are grown in Tenerife gardens and parks. Some species like this are doing well in this way but have nearly vanished from the wild.
The Parrot’s Beak or Pico de Paloma, as it is known in Spanish, has two species that are referred to under these names – Lotus maculatus and Lotus berthelotii - and both of which are nearly extinct in the wild but commonly grown as garden plants in Tenerife. The former variety has yellow and red flowers that curve upwards and look a bit like a bird’s beak, and the latter has flame red blossoms carried amongst fine-leaved grey-green needle shaped leaves, and on long flexible stems.
 Both Lotus maculatus and Lotus berthelotii are used as carpeting and rockery plants and look good trailing over stonework. In the wild they would grow on cliffs and rocky coasts of Tenerife and both species are limited to only a couple of populations of a few plants still surviving in the wild. Lotus maculatus and Lotus berthelotii have difficulty producing seeds, and some sources suggest that whatever once pollinated them is itself now extinct here. In cultivation they are grown from cuttings. Lotus maculatus and Lotus berthelotii are listed as species “in danger of extinction” in the National Catalogue of Endangered Species in Tenerife and the Canary Islands.
 Another two plants that fall into a similar situation are the Red Viper’s Bugloss (Echium wildpretii) and the White Viper’s Bugloss (Echium simplex), known respectively in Spanish as Tajinaste Rojo and Tajinaste Blanco or Arrebol. The Red Viper’s Bugloss is so well known that it has become a symbol of Tenerife and its unusual tall red spikes made up of thousands of little flowers are a common sight on postcards, in tour guides and books about Tenerife.
 However, in the wild in Tenerife this beautiful flower only survives high on Mt Teide, in the mountain village of Vilaflor, and as a subspecies known as E. trichosiphon, on La Caldera de Taburiente on the neighbouring island of La Palma. The Red Viper’s Bugloss is sold as seeds in packets in many shops, however, and is cultivated as garden flower.
The White Viper’s Bugloss is also grown in parks and gardens but in the wild has an even smaller range of habitat in Tenerife, and is now only found wild in small populations in a few locations in the extreme north of the island. Both the Red and White Viper’s Bugloss species are protected plants under Annexe II of the Flora Order.
 The Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco), whilst being another plant symbol of the island of Tenerife, and world famous because of the mighty thousand-year-old Drago Milenario in Icod de los Vinos, is yet another endemic species that is almost extinct in the wild and depends upon its popularity as a garden ornamental tree for its survival. The Dragon Tree is protected under Annexe II of the Flora Order, the Berne Agreement (Annexe I), and the Habitat’s Directive (Annexe IV). In the wild it is limited to a few specimens that survive in barrancos and on cliffs in only a small number of locations in Tenerife.
The Canary Island Tree Sowthistles (Sonchus canariensis & S. arboreus) are both rare, which is a great shame as these two plants are very attractive with their jagged-cut leaves and yellow flowers resembling dandelions and born in bunches. They survive on certain rocky slopes and in barrancos but are getting considerably less in number.
 Some species on Tenerife are so rare that they only grow in the location they are named after eg. The Masca Houseleek (Aeonium mascaense), which is only found on cliffs in Masca.
The pretty little flower known as the Mt Teide Violet, or Violeta del Teide, is only found in small numbers high on Mt Teide, Montaña Blanca and Pico Viejo, and it is the only flower growing at this height. The Teide Violet of Tenerife grows nowhere else on Earth!
Covered in this article, are just a small number of the endemic species that are endangered by the development and building work that is swallowing up the unique habitats of Tenerife.
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Tenerife Island