The Tajinastes del Teide – Tenerife
Tajinastes in the Teide National Park, Tenerife ?. Echium wildpretii is certainly a curious and quite unknown word that comes from the Guanche language (already disappeared after the conquest of Tenerife by the Spaniards where they imposed the Castilian language), but, tainast, feminine Guanche word that means needle has lasted until our times. And what is a Tajinaste that is located in the Teide National Park, Tenerife ?. It is a shrub endemic to Tenerife that has no branches, is covered with thousands of small red flowers and has the shape of a spear. It is of great size because it exceeds 2m. of height and is only found in the Teide National Park, Tenerif
The Tajinaste blooms in spring and its flowering lasts until the end of July. Now is the perfect time to rent a car in AUTOS PLAZA – because the low season rates are very cheap – and go to the Teide National Park to see the Tajinastes and admire its beautiful crimson flowers. You will find them especially in the area of La Fortaleza where there is a nice viewpoint where you can park the car easily and enjoy as much as you want the beautiful spectacle offered by the Tajinastes in bloom standing out above the dark color of the lava. There are also plenty of them on the slopes of the Ucanca Valley, at the feet of Father Teide.
You will notice that there are some white and dry Tajinastes scattered in the landscape, they are the skeletons of old Tajinastes whose seeds, with the miracle of spring, make the new specimens resurface every year to offer us this curious prodigy of nature that you will only find in the Park National of Teide, Tenerife.
In the Canaries there are hundreds of endemic plants and the Tajinaste is one of them. For its great wealth of pollen and nectar the flowers of the Tajinaste are preferred by bees for the production of honey. It is a honey of clear color, monofloral and with denomination of origin.