Iberian Wildlife Tours - Wildlife Holidays in Spain and Portugal
    Iberian Wildlife Tours in Spain and Portugal - for the wildlife holiday or natural history tour of a lifetime

Serra da Arrábida, western Portugal
by Teresa Farino

A well-preserved enclave of Mediterranean forest in western Portugal, with a rich fauna and a superb limestone flora which includes several endemics.

Arrábida Cliffs near Portinho © Teresa Farino Arrábida Cliffs near Portinho © Teresa Farino

The forest-clad, elongated hummock of the Serra da Arrábida is a veritable oasis of natural vegetation amid the suburban sprawl of the Setúbal peninsula, with an incredibly diverse wildlife to match. Along the shore of the Sado estuary, its sheer flanks drop sharply into a turquoise sea, the pale limestone cliffs eaten away at the base to form small sandy coves. Although the 50km-long ridge of the Arrábida attains a maximum of only 501m (Alto do Formosinho), the views from the top are truly spectacular, giving the impression of much greater altitude.

Flora of the Serra da Arrábida

More than 1,000 species of vascular plants have been recorded from the Arrábida natural park (10,821ha; also a reserva biogenética). Not long after Christmas, hoop-petticoat daffodils (subspecies obesus) are out in force, accompanied by the curious friar's cowl, Barbary nut and Western Peony © Teresa Farino Western Peony Paeonia broteri © Teresa Farino the sand crocus Romulea bulbocodium, to be joined by palmate anemone, rosy garlic, wild tulip and the delicate green and purple bells of Fritillaria lusitanica when spring begins in earnest. March brings a flush of orchids into bloom - champagne, conical, naked man, man and giant, plus the insect-imitating dull, bumble-bee, yellow, mirror and sawfly ophrys - and come April, wild and field gladioli and Spanish irises appear, together with pink butterfly, bug and tongue orchids, while a search among the undergrowth should turn up the less conspicuous violet limodore and two-leaved gennaria.

A half-hour foray into the dense maquis flanking the N-379-1 which winds along the top of the ridge will reveal an impressive list of typical Mediterranean shrubs: Phoenician juniper, holly oak, lentisc, Mediterranean buckthorn, strawberry-tree, Osyris lanceolata, myrtle, shrubby hare's-ear, Phillyrea angustifolia, P. latifolia, wild jasmine and laurustinus. The glossy evergreen foliage is coloured by narrow-leaved and grey-leaved cistuses, tree heath, shrubby scorpion-vetch, fringed rue, Phlomis purpurea and rosemary, with the whole mass inextricably bound together by the twining stems of wild madder, Lonicera implexa and common smilax. Mirror Ophrys - Ophrys speculum © Teresa Farino Mirror Ophrys
Ophrys speculum
© Teresa Farino
Shady nooks along this road harbour Narcissus calcicola - the most renowned plant of the Arrábida - found only in Portugal and neighbouring Badajoz in Spain.

On the seaward side of the ridge, the more humid climate and deeper soils of the valleys which drop down to the coast support stands of Lusitanian oak (subspecies broteroi), bay, carob, Montpellier maple and wild olive, with a characteristic spring-flowering ground layer of western peony, Iberian milk-vetch, alexanders and Spanish bluebell. Three integral reserves have been declared where the climax Lusitanian oak forest is more or less intact: Mata do Solitário, Mata do Vidal and Mata Coberta, to which access is forbidden.

The sheer south-facing cliffs - accessible only via the trails down to the fishing villages - boast their own peculiar flora, including the diminutive Portuguese endemic crucifers Arabis sadina and Iberis procumbens ssp. microcarpa and more commonplace species such as sad stock, sweet Alison, the Afro-Iberian endemic stonecrop Sedum mucizonia, fringed rue, mallow-leaved bindweed and cut-leaved lavender, with shady nooks hosting Mediterranean selaginella and southern polypody.

 
Serra da Arrábida, western Portugal
[Flora of the Serra da Arrábida]
Fauna of the Arrábida
Altiplano de Azóia
Scientific names of plants
 

Reports of other wildlife trips to Portugal:

BSBI Botanical Tour in Western Portugal - Trip Report 2006

Related information:

Wildlife of western Portugal - The Sado estuary
Read about Teresa Farino
Wildlife tours and natural history excursions in Spain & Portugal
HomeTours for 2022+About IWTTestimonialsIWT BlogContact us Publications
Wildlife books
Wildlife articles
Translations
Custom wildlife & birding tours
Birds & birdwatching
List of birds
Geography & climate
List of dragonflies & damselflies
Travellers' Nature Guide species menu
Cabo de Gata
Sierra de Grazalema
Grazalema botanical trip report 2007
Benasque botanical trip report 2008
Natural History of the Canary Islands
Fuerteventura trip report
Catalan Pyrenees botanical trip report 2005
Birds & birding
Habitats
Location & geography
List of birds
List of butterflies
List of dragonflies & damselflies
La Mancha tours
Birds & birding
Botanical trip report 2009
Birds & birding
List of dragonflies & damselflies
A naturalist's paradise
List of orchids
Botanical trip report 2004
Butterfly & moth trip report 2005
Butterfly & moth trip report 2006
Butterfly & moth trip report 2008
List of butterflies
Picos walking guide
Natural history of the Arrábida
Wildlife of the Sado estuary
Botanical trip report 2006
Ecuador cloudforest birdwatching
Birds & bison in Poland
 
 
 
  
All photos and text © copyright of the authors.

Home  |  About Iberian Wildlife Tours  |  Contact

Website by Richard Albion