PLANTS ROUTE

Discover each single plant on our Resort.

Scientific name: Chamaerops humilis L.
Family: Palmacea
Origin: Mediterranean region
Popular name: Mediterranean fan palm

Low height palm tree - about 80 cm - grows in tufts with several trunks appearing from the same point. It has a slow growth and is a palm tree native from Europe - In Portugal it only appears in the Algarve. The leaves are used to make brooms and, at Easter time, the folars are cooked in a wood oven on top of a leaf of this palm tree.

Scientific name: Washingtonia filifera Wendl.
Family: Palmacea
Origin: Mexico, California and Arizona
Popular name: California fan palm

Large palm tree reaching 20 m. Large fan-shaped leaves and, when dry, form skirts around the trunk. The palm tree was named in honor of US President George Washington.

Scientific name: Trachycarpus fortunei (Hook) Wendl.
Family: Palmacea
Origin: Central and Eastern China
Popular name: Chinese fan palm / Chinese windmill palm

It is a very rustic palm that adapts to different soils, including calcareous and sandy, but prefers deep and rich lands. It can measure up to 1 m, and is covered with small, aromatic yellow flowers. Kidney-shaped fruits, small and purplish or bluish-black when ripe. It is a dioecious species.

Scientific name: Olea europaea L.
Family: Oleaceae
Origin: Eastern Mediterranean
Popular name: Olive tree

Medium-sized tree, with a contorted trunk and persistent foliage. Olive oil is extracted from its fruit, used as food and in other times it was used to feed candles. The oldest existing specimen in the Algarve is about 2000 years old.
The symbolic wealth of this tree is abundant: reward, purification, strength, peace, victory, fruitfulness. Dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, the olive tree was also dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter.
A myth tells that Neptune and Minerva, disputing the possession of Attica, appear before the assembly of the gods. They decide to entrust the region to whoever offers the most precious gift. The god of the sea struck a rock with his trident and caused a spring to spring up while the goddess gave birth to an olive tree. Thus, Minerva won the victory and this tree was consecrated to him. It became a symbol of peace because the goddess is the warrior figure who opposes Mars. It should also be remembered that at the end of the flood, a dove brought an olive branch to Noah's ark. In the language of the Middle Ages, this tree symbolized gold and love.

Scientific name: Ficus carica L.
Family: Moraceae
Origin: Middle East
Popular name: Fig-tree

Introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs in the 8th century AD, the figs cultivated in Portugal are of the Ficus carica species. Small tree in height, but which can cover a wide area with its hanging branches. It is a dioecious species, its fruits can be eaten fresh or dried. The flowers are tiny and pollinated by an insect that lives in perfect harmony with this tree. If the insect becomes extinct, fig tree pollination ceases to occur.

Scientific name: Acacia longifólia (Andrews) Wild
Family: Fabaceae
Origin: Eastern and Southern Australia
Popular name: Sallow wattle

Evergreen tree with a bushy appearance. It displays profuse yellow flowers from December to March. It can withstand sea winds and is considered an invasive species in Portugal, its propagation being prohibited, due to its rapid growth capable of supplanting natural vegetation. In antiquity, Acacia was considered the symbol of the sun, due to its leaves, which at dawn open to sunlight, and for its flowers, which resemble the shape of the sun. It represents innocence or purity, security and certainty. This species is used in the elaboration of perfumes due to its strong fragrance. In countries like India, Nepal, Tibet and China it is used as incense, it is believed that its smoke wards off ghosts and evil spirits and also gives the gods a good mood.

Scientific name: Carpobrotus edulis L.
Family: Aizoaceae
Origin: South Africa
Popular name: Sally-my-handsome

Succulent plant with a creeping habit, always green triangular leaves, with flowering from May to September, with yellow or purple-pink flowers. It is a plant that grows by the sea and is considered an invasive plant and its planting is prohibited.

Scientific name: Pinus pinea L.
Family: Pinaceae
Origin: Mediterranean
Popular name: Umbrella pine

The stone pine is a resinous species of the Pinaceae family, of slow growth, and that can live up to 300 years of age. It is a tree that grows up to 25 m in height, and very exceptionally can reach 50 meters. It has a straight and robust trunk, thick reddish-brown bark, and forms dense and broad crowns. Young stone pines have rounded shapes; however, with age they develop wider crowns that look like a parasol. The leaves are persistent, acicular (needle-shaped), grouped in pairs, slightly twisted, very firm and flexible. They are bright gray-green in color and persist on the tree for three to four years, renewing themselves without the tree being stripped.
As it is a monoecious species, the flowers, male and female, grow on the same tree. Flowering occurs in spring, between March and May. The pinecones or cones are large, solitary or grouped in sets of 2 to 3 pinecones, ovoid in shape, green when young, becoming reddish-brown when ripe. The maturation period of the pinecones is very long, taking three years after the eggs are fertilized.
The first pinecones begin to appear around 3 to 4 years of age, however fruiting is more abundant between 15 and 20 years of age, with production increasing until around 40 to 50 years of age. The pine nut extraction process is slow, complex and time-consuming, which contributes to the high value of this national delicacy. From 1 kg of pinecones, you can extract between 15 and 45 grams of pine nuts and the price of 1 kg of pine nuts can be around €100.

Scientific name: Ipomoea indica (Burm.)
Family: Convolvulacea
Origin: Central America 
Popular name: Ocean blue morning glory

A herbaceous, perennial vine that is dormant during the winter period. It grows spontaneously over fences and abandoned places. It has blue flowers from June to November with about 6 cm that open at the first sunrise and close at dusk. It is considered an invasive species in Portugal.

Scientific name: Pistacia lentiscus L.
Family: Anacardiaceae
Origin: Mediterranean
Popular name: Mastic tree / Lentisc

Evergreen shrub forming a clump of about 1 meter to 1.5 meters in height. The leaves have a reddish tinge, and the foot of the plant is winged. It is an aromatic shrub plant and its resin is used to make mastic, a gum-resin used in the preparation of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food, paints and construction materials.

Scientific name: Cistus ladanifer L.
Family: Cistaceae
Origin: Mediterranean
Popular name: Gum cistus

Evergreen shrub with vertical development. The leaves are sticky (labdanum resin) and oil filled. It is a very resistant plant to summer periods. It has a white flower with a dark red nail called sores in popular slang. It presents us with its flower in the months of April to May. Labdanum is a resin that is used in perfumery as an aroma fixer. This resin also allows the plant to compete with the others, inhibiting their growth (allelopathy).

Scientific name: Prunus cesarifera var. pissardii (Carrière) L.H.Bailey
Family: Rosaceae
Origin: Iran
Popular name: Purple leaf plum

Deciduous and medium-sized tree, with very characteristic blood-coloured foliage, with abundant pinkish white flowering in early spring. It represents feminine beauty and virtue, delicacy and resistance to bad luck. Prunus are associated with the image of a majestic old age.

Scientific name: Cyca revoluta L.
Family: Cycadaceae
Origin: Japan
Popular name: King sago palm

This plant is symmetrical and bears a crown of leaves. The leaves resemble a large bird's feather. The trunk is strong and has a very slow growth. It is a dioecious species, that is, with one male and one female foot. The sex is easily recognizable when they are in bloom: male feet have vertical cones, and females have rounded inflorescences. Although it resembles a palm tree in reality it is not, it is a gymnosperm of the pine and gingko type (plants whose fruits are pinecones and which constituted the flora of the Mesozoic period). They are called living fossils because they have undergone very few adaptations in the last 200 million years.

Scientific name: Araucaria Heterophylla (Salisb.) Franco
Family: Araucariaceae
Origin: Norfolk Island
Popular name: Norfolk island pine

Large tree, reaching more than 20 m in height. Native to Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean. The first specimen was planted in Portugal by Jacome Ratton at Quinta dos Duques de Palmela, in Lumiar (Lisbon). The largest specimen in Europe is found in the Azores, on the island of Furnas and is 50.10 m high, 1.90 m in diameter and about 150 to 200 years old..

Scientific name: Platanus occidentalis L.
Family: Platanaceae
Origin: US Atlantic Zone
Popular name: Plane

Tree with a very wide crown, which can reach 30 m in height. Thick trunk with smooth, yellowish bark, which comes off in plates, leaving irregular whitish to grey-green patches on the trunk. Large, webbed deciduous leaves with 3 or 5 lobes. Flowers very small, green, grouped in spherical inflorescences with long and hanging peduncles. The fruits are achenes (with only one seed attached to the fruit wall at a single point), grouped in spherical infructescences that resemble a hedgehog. Each fruit is surrounded at the base by hairs that facilitate dispersion by the wind and detach from infructescence the following year. It is a tree widely planted in cities, due to its great resistance to pollution.

Scientific name: Callistemon citrinus L.
Family: Myrtaceae
Origin: Australia
Popular name: Red Australian bottle brush

 

Large shrub that with proper pruning can be confused with a tree. It has a persistent leaf with very sui generis flowers, the branches are arranged in a way that resembles the bristles of brushes to clean bottles. Give us flowers from May to November..

Scientific name: Mirthus communis L.
Family: Myrtaceae
Origin: Mediterranean
Popular name: Myrtle

Dense, permanent foliage shrub. It produces flowers in May and June. The leaves when crushed, give off a strong pleasant smell. Considered by the Greeks and Romans as a symbol of Peace and Love, the myrtle was a sacred plant, dedicated to Aphrodite and Venus. Tradition in Ribatejo dictates that brides step on this plant when leaving the church, so the family would gather the day before to collect the plant and spread it around the churchyard.

Scientific name: Punica granatum L.
Family: Lythraceae
Origin: Iran to North India
Popular name: Pomegranate tree

Large shrub or small deciduous tree. Young leaves are light green with reddish hues. In May it presents us with its reddish-orange flowers and in December it offers us its fruits - pomegranates. The fruit has a leathery rind, and inside are hundreds of small fruits, each with its seed wrapped in a stern. Pomegranate trees are considered a symbol of fertility.

Scientific name: Populus nigra L.
Family: Salicaceae
Origin: Southeast and Central Europe
Popular name: Poplar

The fast-growing, vertical, deciduous tree requires the presence of water and is therefore usually found along riverbanks. The choices are trees with very strong roots, which confer the symbolic value of security and resilience.
This tree specific to the boreal hemisphere takes its name from the Latin word populus and the old French poplier, two terms meaning "People".

Scientific name: Ceratonia síliqua L.
Family: Fabaceae
Origin: Mediterranean and Macaronesia
Popular name: Carob Tree

Dioecious tree, which can reach 15 m in height, has a wide, dense crown that normally touches the ground. With persistent leaves of dark green color and whose flowering takes place from January to February. It is a tree with medicinal interest: its gum is used as a laxative and adjunct in the treatment of obesity, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and consequent prevention of arteriosclerosis.
The fruit of the carob tree (carob) is widely used in the manufacture of various food products and beyond. The pulp (which constitutes 90% of the fruit's weight) is used in the form of flour in the food industry, as a substitute for chocolate, as well as in the manufacture of varied sweets such as cookies and cakes, liqueurs, syrup, bread, and even in the manufacture of animal feed. animals. In turn, a gum is extracted from the seed, which is used in various products for its thickening properties (E410), namely in the pharmaceutical industry to form some tablets, in cosmetics to retain water, in food as additives. for puddings, baby food and ice cream stabilizers, in textile and paper.

Scientific name: Tipuana tipu (Benth.) Kuntze
Family: Fabaceae
Origin: Southern Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina
Popular name: Rosewood / Pride of Bolivia

Large, fast-growing tree with semi-deciduous leaves. In spring it has discreet yellow flowers, brown and "winged" fruits in winter. Its wood is used to produce equestrian polo clubs.

Scientific name: Morus alba L.
Family: Moraceae
Origin: China
Popular name: Mulberry tree

Medium-sized deciduous tree whose growth is fast. The leaves serve as food for silkworms.
Legend says that the young Pyramus and the beautiful Thisbe arranged to meet under a mulberry tree, but the meeting did not go well and blood was spilled, the roots of the mulberry tree absorbing it and its white fruits tinged with red. dark.

Scientific name: Cupressus sempervirens L.
Family: Cupressaceae
Origin: Eastern Mediterranean - Crete, Syria, Lebanon
Popular name: Cypress

This is a tree of extraordinary longevity - with specimens that are more than 1000 years old. It has a conical-shaped, intense green crown. The trunk is finely striated greyish brown. It is a monoecious species - producing male and female flowers on the same tree. Its wood, very fine and aromatic, even when dry, is highly appreciated for furniture, handicrafts, carvings, the manufacture of musical instruments, etc. Some Egyptian and Phoenician sarcophagi were built from this wood and, according to legend, it was used in the construction of Noah's Ark and the Temple of Solomon.
The conical shape of this species is closely associated with the Christian funerary tradition, however, it was successively transferred from some cultures to others (Syrian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman). Represents the link between earth and heaven (shows the way to heaven). /p>

Scientific name: Strelitzia nicolai Regel & K.Koch
Family: Strelitziaceae
Origin: South Africa
Popular name: Giant bird of paradise

Strelitzia is a genus of perennial plants that contains five species, belonging to the Strelitziaceae family that is native to South Africa. Strelitzia nicolai, better known as the "white bird of paradise" or "wild banana" is a large plant, cultivated for its large inflorescences composed of white sepals, blue petals and a bluish-black beak, which resemble the head of a bird. Bird. Its large, oval, glossy gray-green leaves are fan-shaped at the end of its numerous stems. It is a fast-growing plant, has a later flowering than Strelitzia reginae, which usually blooms after 4-6 years. When planted directly in the ground, it can reach 6 m in height and 3 m in diameter. The name Strelitzia was given to it in honor of Queen Charlotte Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz, and wife of King George III of England. The name Nicolai was given to him in honor of Tsar Nicholas of Russia.

Scientific name: Casuariana equisetifolia L.
Family: Casuarinaceae
Origin: Eastern Australia (coastal areas)
Popular name: Australian pine

Large evergreen tree whose leaves are reduced to small scales at the nodes of the smallest branches. It withstands unfavorable conditions by the sea well.

Scientific name: Phoenix dactylifera L.
Family: Palmacea
Origin: Near East of North Africa
Popular name: Date palm

Date palm is a fruit species with the highest tolerance to salinity. Despite this, date growth and quality decline in salty soils. The great adaptability of the date palm to different edaphic conditions makes it, along with the pomegranate, the fruit tree species that best grows in alkaline soils. It is used in the manufacture of brushes, obtaining sugar and alcohol. For every 100 kg of dates, 10 liters of alcohol can be extracted at 96.5 degrees.

Scientific name: Grevilea robusta A. Cunn. ex R. Br.
Family: Proteaceae
Origin: Australia
Popular name: Silver oak

Evergreen tree with vertical growth, reaching more than 15 m. The leaves are very unusual in both shape and colour: lime green on the upper side and silvery green on the underside. In late May to June it produces orange flowers. Indigenous people in Australia used to soak the flowers in water and get a sugary drink.

Scientific name: Dracena draco L.
Family: Asparagaceae
Origin: Macaronesia
Popular name: Dragon tree

The dragon tree reaches 20 m in height and can live about 600 years. It grows slowly and as an adult it has a characteristic parasol canopy, 4 to 15 m wide, similar to that of stone pine. It has a greyish-white trunk, with dichotomous ramifications after the first flowering, which appears around 15 years old. The flowers are white, hermaphrodite and fragrant in panicles, and appear from August to September. The leaves are leathery, but flexible and pointed; they are arranged in a terminal rosette of the younger branches. The fruits are globose, fleshy and orange berries.
The dragon tree is a doubly mythical plant. First because of its scientific name, evocative of its legendary origin: Dracaena comes from the Greek drakaira, a term that designates the female dragon, and from draco, which in Latin means dragon. According to one of the versions of the myth "The Twelve Labors of Heracles", the dragon tree would have been born from the blood of Ladon, the hundred-headed dragon, who watched and prevented strangers from entering the Garden of the Hesperides, where the apples of gold. In order to carry out the eleventh of the twelve labors, which consisted in harvesting three golden apples, Heracles had killed Ladon. The ancients located the Garden of the Hesperides, on an island located at the western «limit» of the world - probably the current Canary archipelago.