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Report of overseas field meeting - 2009 - Paramos of Northern Castile (Spain) 51
REPORT OF OVERSEAS FIELD MEETING - 2009
Paramos of Northern Castile (Spain), 13 th May - 20 th May
Thirteen members joined leaders Teresa
Farino and Jon Cox for a week to explore this
relatively unknown area of northern Spain,
which straddles the confluence of the
provinces of Palencia (P), Burgos (Bu) and
Cantabria (S). The high limestone plateaux of
this region are known as pdramos, where the
'bones' of the land protrude through the thin
soils, creating a charismatic landscape of crags
and buttresses, interspersed with low-intensity
cereal cultivations, species-rich grasslands
and fragments of evergreen oak forest. We
also visited more montane habitats in the
Cordillera Cantiibrica to the north - both on
limestone and siliceous bedrock - as well as
the impressive river canyon carved out by the
infant Ebro.
Mid-May normally sees the cereal fields of
the paramos teeming with arable weeds, but
we found the season to be abnormally late,
following one of the hardest winters in recent
years. All agreed, however, that despite the
lack of colourful displays of poppies and
cornflowers, there was more than enough of
botanical interest to keep us on our toes.
The taxonomy used in the following report
follows Flora Iberica as far as possible.
Teresa and Jon would like to extend their
heartfelt thanks to Lynne Farrell for collating
each day's findings in the evenings, resulting
in a total species list for the week of almost
600 taxa.
13 th May - Hoyos del Tozo (Bu)
Having collected everyone from Madrid
airport, we drove up the Al to Burgos, then
spent an hour or so botanising on a dry
limestone plateau and small canyon near
Hoyos del Tozo, on the southern margin of the
Paramo de La Lora. In what was to become
the pattern for the week, no sooner had the
minibuses ground to a halt than botanists
fanned out in all directions, in search of bot anical
gems. Those of us who stayed fairly close
to the vehicles in the first instance found a
wealth of orchids - many of which were of
inordinately small stature following the hard
winter - including Anacamptis moria;
(=Orchis moria; Green-winged Orchid),
Orchis anthropophora (=Aceras anthropophorum;
Man Orchid), Dactylorhiza insularis
(Barton's Orchid), Ophrys tenthredinifera
(Sawfly Ophrys), Ophrys lutea (Yellow
Ophrys) and Ophrys sphegodes (Early Spiderorchid).
Among the other monocots growing here
were stately Asphodelus albus and A. aestivus
(White and Common Asphodels), Aphyllanthes
monspeliensis (Blue Aphyllanthes) and
Muscari comosum (Tassel Hyacinth). The
low-growing, white-flowered Spiraea hypericifolia
ssp. obovata was the predominant
shrub on the plateau, in the shelter of which
grew a number of scarce British species,
notably Viola kitaibeliana (Dwarf Pansy),
Trinia glauca (Honewort) and Carex humilis
(Dwarf Sedge). Incredibly, some attempt had
been made to cultivate cereals on the exceedingly
thin soils here, with these more disturbed
areas turning up the shepherd's-needle
Scandix australis ,Asterolinon linum-stellatum
(Asterolinon) and Neatostema apulum
(Yellow Gromwell).
The walls of a small limestone gorge nearby
were decorated with bushes of Amelanchier
ovalis (Snowy Mespilus) in full flower, among
which flourished the eye-catching creamy
flowers - up to 4cm in diameter - of Thalictrum
tuberosum, plus Hornungia petraea
(Hutchinsia), the fleshy-leaved Saxifraga
cuneata (see Back Cover) and Globularia
vulgaris (Common Globularia). Such was the
enthusiasm engendered by this first taste of the
pdramos that it took quite some time to round
everyone up to drive the final few kilometres
to our hotel in the converted convent of Santa
Maria de Mave, but eventually we were
tucking in to our first delicious evening meal
of the week.