The result of a 10 year amateur study undertaken
by Dr. Butler along the Costa Blanca in Spain. Fascinating and well
researched, brilliant photographs, including our cover, provided
by the author. by Dr. Neil Buttler, Dorset, UK Chamaerops No.27 Summer 1997
I hesitated to write about this much loved and well
documented plant because of the risk of comments like Not another
one . However there are so many rich and varied communities of this
plant, (known commonly as palmito or locally as margallo) in this
area that the risk is worth taking. In the tourist sense Costa Blanca
refers to the coastline of Spain. Chamaerops is regarded as a coastal
plant but it does extend inland for considerable distances where
suitable habitats are found. This article is about my observations
along the coastal zone of the province extending inland up to 30
kms. I have made regular botanical forays into the Mediterranean
area over the last 40 years. Chamaerops was just one of many interesting
plants but its distribution confined to the western Mediterranean
was of some interest. This interest became more focused as I spent
more time in the Chamaerops zone and over the last ten years my
interest has been concentrated in the Alicante Province.
The fate of Chamaerops is very much linked to human
activities, sometimes to its advantage and sometimes the reverse.
Before humans invaded the Mediterranean, it had its own niche on
coastal cliffs and inland where suitable habitats existed within
its range. When early man decimated the forests this opened vast
new areas that Chamaerops could colonise. It was of course excluded
from the areas used for agriculture. Much of the poorer land that
was used for subsistence farming for many centuries has been abandoned
and Chamaerops has moved in. Such colonisation is very slow. The
Province of Alicante has a varied landscape, both mountainous and
flat. In the south of the province there are large areas of coastal
plains which merge into the inland mountains. Going north the mountain
chains curve eastward to the sea to produce the classic sea-cliff
habitat for Chamaerops.
Costa del Chamaerops
