The flora and fauna of the island of Fuerteventura

Native vegetation of Fuerteventura is rare, clean, semi-desert or steppe. The vegetation is generally limited to three plant media, from the coast to the summits: the “taibaba dulce” consists mainly of Balsamic spurge (Euphorbia balsamifera), which develops in the hyper-arid or arid soils; the “cardonal” hillsides consists mainly of leafy Canary (Euphorbia canariensis), named “cardón” in Spanish, met in the semi-arid land; and “acebuchal” summits, the highest in semi-arid land, which includes olive cherry (Olea europaea subspecies cerasiformis) and the embattled buckthorn (Rhamnus crenulata), named “espino negro” in Spanish.

A plant - or a lichen - characteristic of Fuerteventura is orchil (Roccella tinctoria), used since ancient times to produce a purple dye often used to color the Roman togas, like purple animal extracted from the cochineal. The Romans also knew Fuerteventura and Lanzarote under the name of “Purple Islands”; this wealth aroused undoubtedly interest Jean de Béthencourt for these two islands.

Cacti, of American origin, have adapted perfectly and are ubiquitous.

Its range covers West Africa (Morocco, Sahara) and the Canary Islands. Its only population in the Canary Islands is in the island of Lobos; the plant was reintroduced in Maspalomas in Gran Canaria.

The Limonium tuberculatum grows in sandy soil near the sea, growing among coastal rocks or forming dense clumps near the lagoons.

Three other species, most common, also inhabit the peninsula Jandía, and the small desert of El Jable to the north. The stone curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) called alcaraván in Spanish is recognized by its mottled beige plumage, wings streaked with visible black val, its yellow beak with black tip, and the plaintive cry that pushes the evening. The Canaries have a subspecies endemic, Burrhinus oedicnemus distinctus, present on all the islands, but we will be more likely to see Fuerteventura. However, the cream-colored courser (Cursorius cursor) corredor in Spanish is not an endemic genus: it is the same species that Sahara, recognizable by its beige plumage except below wings and a black eyebrow at his curved beak, and especially his long yellow legs that allow it amazing strides which it is named in all languages ​​the cream-colored courser is quite abundant. Luck also perhaps we will observe the ganga unibande (Pterocles orientalis) ortega in Spanish: it is a rather round bird with short legs, yellow plumage above and black below, which normally lives in North Africa and the arid plateaus of mainland Spain.

Native species are only two, the eastern pipistrelle Kuhl (Pipistrellus kuhlii) (murciélago de borde claro), a rare and localized bats and shrews Canary (Crocidura canariensis) (musaraña de Canarias), a small insectivorous mammal .