Picos de Europa:
a naturalist's paradise - part 5

Puerto de San Glorio

Pyrenean Snakeshead
Fritillaria pyrenaica © Teresa Farino

This 1,609m pass on the N-621 essentially divides the Picos de Europa from the neighbouring Cordillera Cantábrica. High-level haymeadows here house acid-loving flowers such as common bistort, horned pansy, great yellow gentian, large self-heal, Pedicularis mixta, Narcissus pseudonarcissus ssp. nobilis and Pyrenean snakeshead, plus vanilla, pale-flowered, elder-flowered and frog orchids. Slaty screes host Teesdaliopsis conferta and Phalacrocarpum oppositifolium, both unique to northern Iberia, while boggy areas are populated by aconite-leaved Rock Grayling
Hipparchia alcyone © Teresa Farino buttercup, hairy stonecrop, starry and yellow mountain saxifrages, water avens, grass-of-Parnassus, snow gentian, large-flowered butterwort and white false helleborine.

Pyrenean desmans are known from the many small streams of the San Glorio area, while the surrounding forests are home to high densities of wildcat and Eurasian badger. Wolf and brown bear are the most noteworthy mammals of the mountains to the south of the pass, with red deer frequent in winter. Whitethroats, red-backed shrikes and rock buntings occupy the scrub, as do Cantabrican vipers, often sporting melanic coloration. In terms of the butterflies, San Glorio is a classic locality for Chapman's ringlet (endemic to the central Cordillera Cantábrica) in June, along with marsh, pearl-bordered and Queen of Spain fritillaries, with July bringing Apollo, Esper's marbled white, rock grayling and purple-edged, purple-shot and scarce coppers.