Laurisilva of Madeira

Overview

The Laurisilva of Madeira is the largest surviving laurel forest in the world, about 15,000 hectares of evergreen woodland on the wet north-facing slopes of the island between 300 and 1,300 m, a relic of the subtropical forest that covered the Mediterranean before the ice ages and has stood on Madeira for at least 1.8 million years; it covers 16 per cent of the island, is a World Heritage site, and is the forest the levada paths run through.

The trees are laurels, til, vinhático and lily-of-the-valley tree, hung with moss and lichen, above an understory of ferns, the giant Madeira geranium and endemic orchids; the birds are the Trocaz pigeon and the Madeira firecrest, found nowhere else. Walking it is free and needs only the levadas, the irrigation channels whose maintenance paths contour the mountains.

History

Laurel forest covered most of the island when the Portuguese landed after 1420; they cut it for timber, above all the til, cleared the south side for sugar in the 16th and 17th centuries, burned the woods for the mills’ charcoal and turned the rest to pasture, and the levadas, channels 80 to 150 cm wide of stone and later concrete, were built to carry the north’s rain to the south’s cane. Pine and eucalyptus plantations followed at middle altitudes, and the eucalyptus has spread across the south slope.

What survives is the moist laurisilva of the north, dominated by Laurus novocanariensis, Ocotea foetens, Persea indica and Clethra arborea, and a dry version on the south slopes with Persea barbujana and Picconia excelsa; above it the tree heath and Madeira juniper of the high ridges, below it pockets of wild olive and dragon tree on the coast. The island has 1,226 native vascular plants, 66 of them endemic; 42 bird species breed, including Zino’s petrel, one of the rarest seabirds in Europe.

Visiting

The forest is entered along the levadas and the marked PR trails. Ribeiro Frio, on the road from Funchal to Santana, has the trout hatchery, the short walk to the Balcões viewpoint over the central peaks and the longer Levada do Furado to Portela; Rabaçal, on the Paúl da Serra plateau, has the walks to the Risco waterfall and the 25 Fontes, the most popular on the island; Queimadas above Santana leads to the Caldeirão Verde, a green amphitheatre with a waterfall reached through tunnels; and the Fanal plateau, with its ancient til trees in the fog, is the place for the forest at its strangest.

Every walk is on a narrow path beside running water, level for the most part, with tunnels that need a torch and drops that need a head for heights; the cloud that feeds the forest sits on it most afternoons, and rain is part of the experience.

Tips

• Start early; the levadas by 11:00 in summer are a queue, and the cloud comes up from the coast after noon.
• Torch, waterproof and shoes with grip; the tunnels are long and the paths wet whatever the weather at sea level.
• The Trocaz pigeon is big, dark and shy; the firecrest is tiny and everywhere. Listen at the forest edge at Ribeiro Frio.
• Fanal’s tils in fog are on every postcard; on a clear day they are just trees, so go when the forecast is bad.

Nearby

• Ribeiro Frio: 20 km from Funchal on the Santana road.
• Pico Ruivo: the summit above the forest.
• Santana and its thatched houses: the north coast base.
• Porto Moniz and its lava pools: the western end.

Getting there

Horários do Funchal bus 56 from Funchal to Santana passes Ribeiro Frio; Rodoeste buses serve the west and the north coast, but Rabaçal and Fanal on the Paúl da Serra plateau need a car or a tour, and the road up from Calheta or Porto Moniz is steep and often in cloud.