Los Alcornocales

The Nature Park of Oak trees Los Alcornocales

Municipalities:   

                                           

Alacala de los Gazules

Algar

Algeciras

Arcos de la Frontera

Benalup-Casas Viejas

Benaocaz

Castellar de la Frontera

Cortes de la Frontera

El Bosque

El Colmenar Estación de Gaucín

Jerez de la Frontera

Jimena de la Frontera

Los Barrios

Medina-Sidonia

Prado del Rey

San Jose del Valle

Tarifa

Ubrique 

This vast park covers 170.000 ha from Tarifa in the south to the Sierra de Grazalema in the north. It is named after its beautiful kept cork tree groves, the largest in the Iberian Peninsula and one of the most important one in the world. It is the best example of what the densely wooded, primeval  Iberian forest may have been like.

The far south of the region is crossed by humid, deep, narrow V-shaped valleys, called canutos, which have been eroded by rivers and provide the ideal habitat for subtropical forests of great ecological value. Today, these forests only exist in Spain and Turkey but they used to grow in many parts of Europe. 

There are over 40 species of fern in the area, one botanical jewel is the rare fern psilotum nudum, the only other examples of which occur in the southern hemisphere. 

Typical canutos are those of Gallina, Hortela and Jautor

Read more: Los Alcornocales  by turismoderonda

                         Los Alcornocales by Wikipedia