The Barranco del Infierno, Adeje, in summer

‘Sea Rosemary’ – Romero marino (Campylanthus salsoloides) was still in flower in July – it flowers over a very long period

The view to Adeje from the first part of the walk

I have not visited the Barranco del Infierno for several years because much of that time it has been closed to the public, but it is now open again. The paths have been considerably improved, although they are still rough in places and do need good suitable shoes or boots. Numbers are now limited to 300 people per day and this makes it much more comfortable to walk. This means you need to book your visit in advance, which is easy on the website. I was able to book in July the day before, but I suspect at busy times of year it will be necessary to book much further in advance. The website is: http://www.barrancodelinfierno.es/en/

Mignonette – a local endemic species of it – (Reseda scoparia)

Maple-leaved Lavatera (Lavatera acerifolia)

July is not the best time of year to visit the Barranco because much of the vegetation is shutting down for the summer, losing leaves, and so on. In fact I was not expecting to see many flowers at all, or to see much water in the waterfall and stream, but in both cases I was pleasantly surprised. So it was still an enjoyable and interesting experience. We did make a fairly early start, though, at 9.30 and finished our visit when Adeje’s church clock was striking 12.00. It was already getting quite hot in the sun in the barranco, so we were pleased to finish early.

 

Little Teno Lettuce – Lechugilla de Teno -(Tolpis crassiscula) – a very local endemic – was in flower up the cliffs in lots of places

Flowing stream and pool – a rare sight in south Tenerife

The Barranco is an amazing landscape. It starts at the top of Calle Molinos, a very steep street right at the top edge of the old town of Adeje. There is an entrance office where you buy or show your tickets, and an area where a briefing is given about the rules of entry, and where helmets are provided for visitors to wear. After that you make your way into the Barranco along the well-defined path, which you are not allowed to leave. The path is both the way in and the return route, so as the day goes on returning visitors meet incoming visitors, and in places the path is so narrow, that one or other has to give way. The fact that entering visitors are in time batches, and the total numbers are limited, means this is not such a problem as it would be with uncontrolled numbers.

Part of the waterfall at the end of the walk – it is so high it’s difficult to photograph all of it.

A view on the way out of the narrow gorge part of the Barranco

At the start of the path the barranco is wide and there is view across it to the flat-topped Roque del Conde. As you walk further into the barranco it narrows, until it becomes a very narrow gorge, and finally ends with a 200m sheer cliff down which the water falls, down into a small pool which then flows out into a stream with various rock worn pools on the way. In the first, open, part of the barranco has an ecosystem dominated by Euphorbias, like most of the coastal areas. The middle part contains a thermophile ecosystem with a greater variety of plants, many of them requiring a moister atmosphere than the first part. In this part are examples of typical plants such as the Almaciga (Pistacia atlantica) ,Tree Bindweed – Guaydil (Convolvulus floridus), Maple-leaved Lavatera (Lavatera acerifolia) and Ceballosia (Ceballosia fruticosa). All of these, except a few Lavatera, had already flowered and so I was unable to get pictures. The other abundant plants that were in flower in this area were the Balo (Plocama pendula) and the Mataprieta (Justicia hyssopifolia) both of which are Canary endemics.

A fine specimen of the rare local endemic ‘Cliff cabbage’ – Col de risk – (Crambe scaberrima)

Returning through the wider part of the Barranco

The remaining part, the gorge, contains little on the ground between the sheer walls apart from the stream, the path, various Canary Willow trees (Salix canariensis) and Sweet Chestnut trees (Castanea sativa), and brambles. The only really interesting plants were water plants and the local endemic plant, Lechugilla del Teno (where it also grows) (Tolpis crassiscula), which is listed in the Red Book as vulnerable. I was pleased to see a large number of these growing and flowering beside the path and up the cliffs.

Hyssop-leaved Justicia (Justicia hyssopifolia) flower

A walk from Tajao on the south coast of Tenerife

Rocks in the barranco near the beginning of the walk showing the varied geology. The grass plant in front of the boulder is the very invasive introduced plant, Pennisetum setaceum.

I did this walk with a group of friends two weeks ago on the 2nd April. We decided to do a walk near the coast as the weather was a bit uncertain, and there were black clouds up the hills. So we thought we would explore the area inland from Tajao, as we had not walked there before. By walking near the coast we managed to avoid rain except for a few tiny drops at our highest point, and we saw an abundance of flowers, some endemic, others native and many ruderals and introduced species mainly from Europe.

Fagonia albiflora is widespread near the coast

Polycarpaea nivea is also a widespread coastal plant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven’t posted about this walk before as we saw so many flowers that I still have not identified all of them in the few spare minutes that I have had. However, I thought I had got names for enough of them to make a post now, to share with interested friends.

Canary Volutaria (Volutaria canariensis) A widespread annual growing to about 2 ft / 60cm high. It is a Canary endemic

I am not going to describe the walk as it was not the most inspiring walk I’ve done, and am not likely to do it again myself, since it passed through a quarry, where the track we were on disappeared, then having gained another track on a ridge we looked across at what turned out to be a landfill site! Further on we passed a solar farm, and an intensive animal farm with modern sheds and silos, though we could not see what animals it housed. So it was not the most scenic walk I have done in Tenerife, but it did have its moments, and it also passed through several areas of natural basal zone vegetation which were interesting.

 

Canary rock rose (Helianthemum canariense) is a canary endemic which likes open rocky sites in the basal zone.

 

 

We were following a track we had downloaded from Wikiloc contributed by the user “Rutas de Tenerife” which you will find at the following link: http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4025346

 

A view of the typical natural vegetation on a rocky ridge at about 100m altitude

 

 

 

 

However, be warned. We lost our way in the quarry where recent work appeared to have destroyed the path we were following, and we also lost our way halfway down the descent, in an area of loose rocks which was difficult to walk on without a path.

 

Mataperros (Ceropegia fusca) with its odd-shaped red flowers

 

The plants that are illustrated are relatively common near the coast in the south of the island, so I hope it will interest you on walks in the south even though this walk was not the most recommended!

 

Canary bird’s foot trefoil (Lotus sessilifolius) is the coastal species of this group

 

 

 

 

 

Volutaria tubuliflora is an annual which is a more widespread (non endemic) species of Volutaria. They are related to the knapweeds.

 

 

 

 

 

A view into a nearby barranco

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flowers of the Canary spurge (Euphorbia canariensis)

 

 

 

Ajuga iva seen on the track

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reseda scoparia a Canary endemic of the mignonette family which is fairly common in the basal zone

A typical view of the vegetation in the rocky part of the descent, with a Mataperros, (Ceropegia fusca) in the foreground (grey stick-like), Balo (Plocama pendula) the drooping shrub behind, Bitter spurge (Euphorbia lamarckii) the yellowing bush to its right, and Cardón (Euphorbia canariensis) the candlesticks behind.

Frankenia capitata is common near the coast

The Barranco de Erques, Vera de Erques and Tejina

A view of the Barranco de Erques near the start of the walk

The Barranco de Erques is the border between the municipalities of Guia de Isora and Adeje on the west of Tenerife. The whole of its length is in protected areas, most of it in the  Protected landscape of the Barranco de Erques (Paisaje protegido del Barranco de Erques). It is a very scenic barranco, but also interesting botanically, especially where an old pathway crosses it just above the bridge for the main road from Adeje to Guia de Isora (TF-82).

Canary Lavender (Lavendula canariensis) beside the path as it crosses the barranco

We did this walk to use two traditional paths on the inventory by the Ayuntamiento of Guia de Isora (Town council) which I had never walked. I knew one, the Camino La Morra, went alongside the Barranco de Erques for part of its trajectory, and was interested to see what it was like.

The pink flowers of the Sea rosemary (Campylanthes salsaloides) in front of the bright green of the Bitter spurge (Euphorbia lamarckii) in flower.

We parked beside the TF-82 on the Adeje side of the bridge and walked down to the bridge.  Behind the crash barrier a path leads to the right and up some rudimentary stone steps up a slope to join the old path disrupted by the building of the TF-82 road. The path leads along the Adeje edge of the barranco, and uphill a little before beginning the descent into the barranco on a well-cobbled path.  There are a lot of Euphorbias here, but, unusually, there are three species together, which normally grow in different habitats. There is the species that is common in coastal areas, the Sweet spurge (Euphorbia balsamifera), the Bitter spurge (Euphorbia lamarckii) common in mid altitudes, and the Purple spurge (Euphorbia atropurpurea) which normally grows only higher up the mountains. The altitude here is around 450m above sea level, so I suppose it is a mixing point.

Purple spurge, (Euphorbia atropurpurea) a canary endemic which grows normally at higher altitudes around 800-1200m

The path climbing the opposite side of the barranco was, in places, badly eroded and somewhat overgrown so needed some care, but at the top we reached a reasonably clear, though rough, path going straight up to the right.  We walked up this path for about 500m and I noticed a clump of Canary mignonette (Reseda scoparia). This is again a plant of coastal areas but it seemed quite at home here. We were approaching a dip in the path to cross a minor barranco when we reached the junction to the right for the start of the Camino La Morra which would take us back to the edge of the Barranco de Erques and then along its edge for a while on the way to Vera de Erques.

Canary mignonette (Reseda scoparia) beside the path

Vera de Erques is quite a substantial community with its own primary school, church and cultural centre. It is surrounded by good farmland, and at this time of year many blossoming almond trees. We arrived on the main street opposite the cultural centre, and turned left downhill till we reached a bend where the next footpath leaves.  There is a signboard describing the Camino de Montiel at the start, which is a track at first, but after about 10 metres it is important to look for the footpath going down, concreted at first as it also allows access to a small allotment. Before you reach the allotment the main path goes right and from then on it is very easy to follow.

The start of the Camino la Morra. It is a little hard to see.

The Camino de Montiel passes a house of the same name on its way to Las Fuentes, a small village which is reached only by a dirt track, but which used to be a very important area for growing cereals for Guia de Isora. These days the houses are largely uninhabited, although some are used at weekends and in the summer by the families that own them. Many of the fields are still cultivated by the families, and once every 5 years the village has a fiesta in March when all the families gather up there for a weekend. I have never seen so many people up there as I did when the last fiesta happened in 2010.

A view of the Barranco de Erques from the Camino la Morra

We did not go right up to Las Fuentes this time, but joined the track where the footpath comes close to it, and walked down the track to Tejina de Guia. There we went left along the road for a short distance, crossing the beautiful Barranco Cuéscara, and then turning right off the road to rejoin a path for a while. That path ended on the road from TF-82 and Vera de Erques which we had to walk along for about 500m before reaching a path again leaving on a bend. This path took us back to the junction with the Camino la Morra where we had turned earlier and we followed the same route back down to and across the Barranco de Erques, taking more time to enjoy the flowers as we crossed it back to the cars. There were lots of Sea Rosemary (Campylanthus salsaloides) plants with their pink flowers. There are also some fine clumps of Cardón, or Canary spurge, (Euphorbia canariensis) on the barranco sides. Also in this area, though not in flower at this time of year (April/May would be the time for them) are some uncommon shrubs of the Canary endemic Shrubby Bindweed (Convolvulus scoparius).

Canary sage (Salvia canariensis) by the road as we approached Barranco Cuescara in Tejina

The walk was 12.06 km /7.5ml long, involved 651m of ascent and descent, and took us 4hrs 25mins. A GPS track of the walk can be seen, and downloaded from, this site:

http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=6125439

The old washing places, or lavanderos, near the Casa Montiel, which lends its name to the footpath. There is also an old wine press in a cave behind and below these.

Canary spurge, or Cardon, (Euphorbia canariensis) on the side of the Barranco de Erques