Red Palm Tree Beetle

(Apologies for the long delay since I last put up a new Post! I had a computer glitch, repeatedly sending the same Email from Outlook Express. My computer was in 'shop' for nearly a week being fixed!)

In the last few years many of the Canary Palm trees of the coast have been destroyed by the dreaded Red Palm Tree Beetle. It attacks the growing part at the crown of the tree. Healthy palms can be killed in a couple of weeks! The effect can be seen in an old avenue of palms now leading to a new development.

Bahia Dorada palms have not escaped. The photo on the left shows one that is now a mere stump. Infected palm can be saved if treated in time with sprays. It is vital to do it, as infested trees soon infect healthy ones around it.

A Tree Surgeon recently gave a talk to our local Gardening Group. He told us that trimming palm trees is partly responsible for the spread of Palm Tree beetle infection. Pheramones are released when the palm is cut, which attract the Red Beetles. It might be less tidy to leave old fronds hanging down. But that's better than having trouble with the Red Palm Tree Beetle!

Spectacular flowering trees and shrubs

One of the things I love about living in Spain is the exotic profusion of beautiful trees and flowers!

The mass of blossom that looks like pink orchids, may be a variety of Bauhinia. (One of my readers says it may actually be a Bombax.) The tree I photographed in Estepona seems to be in bloom for much of the year! Surprisingly, the trunk of the tree is studded with hard thorns!

Its fun to walk around Bahia Dorada with a digital camera and take pictures of the many gorgeous trees and shrubs in the gardens. The plant with the big yellow bells is Datura. They can also be white or pink.

The usual Bouganvilla colour is deep purple, but it can be in shades of red, pink or orange!







They make a showy contrast to the misty blue of plumbago! The gardeners like to be tidy and formal, and trim the shrubs like a hedge. But when they do that, there are no flowers as the flower buds grow from the tips of each shoot! I like the wild natural shapes - with flowers!

Cork trees

Photo taken near Grazelema by A.W.G. Reid

Cork Oaks grow in many Mediteranean countries, and live for 150-200 years. They have a thick rugged bark, which acts as a shield against forest fires. The core of the tree is alive even when the outer layer is scorched. To harvest them the lower parts of the trunk are stripped of their cork bark by hand. The men who do the work are specialists and know when the tree is ready to 'give' the cork. It comes away cleanly in large pieces. Then it takes 8-12 years to grow another layer that is thick enough to harvest again. Ecology is undamaged by cork forests, and as none of the trees are felled, and no chemicals, pesticides or herbicides are used, they maintain environmental bio-diversity. And, after use, cork has the marvelous property of being biodegradable.

Cork grows on the mountains, less than half and hour from where I live! When they
have been freshly cut the trunks often look bright red - as if the trees are bleeding. The cork is stacked in huge heaps for drying. Cork has multiple uses. Since ancient times it has been used to make wine bottle stoppers; for roof and floor tiling; for fishing nets floats and for making bee hives. In more recent times for shoe soles, life jacket filling and sports equipment.


One tree can provide cork for 4,000 bottles of wine! But real corks can crumble, causing oxidation and making a percentage of wine undrinkable. So, wine growers are increasingly using plastic bottle stoppers and screw on caps which have zero taint. If this continues, cork forests with their eco-system benefits, will become a thing of the past.

1.450m to the top of the Bermeja!

The summit of the Bermeja mountain behind Estepona is 1.450 meters! Although the road up to it is steep, narrow and twisting, it is possible to drive a car most of the way. On a clear day it seems as though you can 'see forever', and there are views of Morocco and the Sierra Nevada. In my lefthand picture Gibraltar is just visible in the distance. If you are lucky you might see Booted Eagles, Griffon Vultures, Sparrow hawks, and Long Eared Owls, or even an Egyptian Mongoose! You will certainly see a very rare species of pine tree, the Pinsapo, which only grows in Andalucia. It was discovered quite recently, in 1837, by a Swiss botanist Edmund Bosser. It has short blue-green needles, and its branches sweep low to the ground.

There is a Refugio, about a kilometer below the summit, where shelter, food and drink are often available. In winter a blazing wood fire is a welcome warmer! There are tables with long benches indoors, and wooden picnic tables under the trees for fine weather. Young people bring sleeping bags and sleep out on the 'deck', to see the glorious sunrise in the morning.