Back Los Alcornocales German Parque natural de Los Alcornocales Spanish Parque Natural de Los Alcornocales Galician Los Alcornocales NN Parque Natural de Los Alcornocales Portuguese
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2010) |
| Los Alcornocales Natural Park | |
|---|---|
| Parque natural de Los Alcornocales | |
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape) | |
 El Picacho | |
  Map of Andalusia | |
| Location | Cádiz and Málaga provinces Andalusia, Spain |
| Coordinates | 36°26′N 5°34′W / 36.43°N 5.56°W[1] |
| Area | 1,677 km2 (647 sq mi) |
| Established | 1989 |
Los Alcornocales Natural Park (in Spanish, Parque natural de Los Alcornocales) is a natural park located in the south of Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia; it is shared between the Province of Cádiz and Málaga. The natural park occupies a territory spanning seventeen municipalities with a total population of about 380,000. Los Alcornocales means "the cork oak groves".
Nearly all of the uninhabited land in the park is covered by Mediterranean native forest. While some of the land has been cleared for cattle ranches, much of the human activity in the park is devoted to exploitation of the forest's resources: hunting wild game, collecting wild mushrooms, and foraging for good specimens of tree heath. The tree heath (Erica arborea, called "brezos" in Spanish) is a small evergreen shrub, rarely more than two or three meters high; it is the source of the reddish briar-root wood used in making tobacco pipes, and its wood is excellent raw material for making charcoal.
Above all, however, the park's forests are exploited for the production of cork. The cork oak (Quercus suber) is a tree with a spongy layer of material lying between the outer surface of its bark and the underlying living layer called the phloem (which, in turn, encloses the non-living woody stem.) Cork is generated by a specialized layer of tissue called cork cambium. Properly done, harvesting cork from a given tree can be undertaken every ten to twelve years without damaging the tree; the cork cambium simply regenerates it. Cork has many commercial uses, including wine-bottle stoppers, bulletin boards, coasters, insulation, sealing material for jar lids, flooring, gaskets for engines, fishing bobbers, handles for fishing rods and tennis rackets, etc. Los Alcornocales Natural Park has the biggest and best preserved relicts of Laurisilva in Continental Europe.[2]
Los Llanos del Juncal, a small part of the Natural Park, has a distinctive cloud forest[3] and it also forms a mixed laurel forest,[4] that dates back to somewhere between the Tertiary and the Quaternary Period.[5]
- ^ "Los Alcornocales Nature Park". protectedplanet.net.
- ^ Pérez Latorre, Andrés Vicente; Galán de Mera, Antonio; Navas, Patricia; Navas, David; Gil, Yolanda; Cabezudo, Baltasar (1999). "DATOS SOBRE LA FLORA Y VEGETACIÓN DEL PARQUE NATURAL DE LOS ALCORNOCALES (CÁDIZ-MÁLAGA, ESPAÑA)". Acta Botanica Malacitana. 24. University of Málaga: 133–184.
- ^ "Un día en el Bosque de Niebla". europasur.es (in European Spanish). Europa Sur. 2021-05-08. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
- ^ "Parque Natural Los Alcornocales". juntadeandalucia.es (in European Spanish). Junta de Andalucía. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
- ^ Manuel Becerra Parra, Manuel and Estrella Robles Domínguez. "Contribución Al Conocimiento De La Micobiota De Los Bosques De Niebla Del Parque Natural De Los Alcornocales (CÁDIZ)" (PDF). institutoecg.es (in European Spanish). Instituto de Estudios Campogibraltareños. Retrieved 2021-12-14.