Balearic Flora

M4 Oak forest flora

At the beginning of the XX century, when the Modernist building was built (now the Science Museum), several emblematic trees were planted. Two of these are now part of this area and are kept as a symbol of what the estate of Ca’n Prohom used to be.

The largest tree is the Magnolia, (Magnolia grandiflora), a species originating from the southern United States, The specimen of the Botanical Garden is a cultivar called "Galissonière". It is more cold resistant and the back of the leaves are rust coloured. The name of the cultivar is a reference to the French admiral, during the reign of Louis XV of France, who took Minorca from the English in 1756.

The "Creoe Myrtle" (Lagerstroemia indica) is a species originating in China flowering during summer. It has a distinctive bark which upon maturing falls showing the paler and smoother fresh bark which gives it its name in Chinese. Translated it means "the tree where monkeys cannot climb".

 

The four evergreen oaks growing in this area are a small representation of the possible Majorcan phenotypes of the species (Quercus ilex) which, together with the "aladierno", rubia brava, zarzaparrilla, heather, cyclamen, butchers broom (Ruscus acculeatus ), violets, already present, with time will represent the most typical flora found in our evergreen oak forests.

Box (Buxux balearica), occurs only in Majorca and Cabrera, in markedly different settings. In Cabrera, it grows very near sea level (Cala Emboixar), and in Majorca always in the mountains. It is a species in regression due to over-harvesting for use in cabinet making. It was the basic fodder of the Myotragus balearicus, a type of extinct goat which lived thousands of years ago. In this area you can see two separate groups of Box with leaves of a different shape. 

 

Yew (Taxus baccata) in Majorca grows in the same situation as Box, found only in the highest mountains of the Serra de Tramuntana. All parts of this tree are poisonous, except for the fleshy red part of the fruit.

In the Damp zone, which is built using the estate’s original system of irrigation channels, you can find species damp loving plants or plants needing permanent running water, as is the case of Potamogeton coloratus (pond weed ).

There are also two endemic species worth noting:

Apium bermejoi, a perennial umbelliferae which only grows in Minorca on a siliceous substrate near the sea; and the Naufraga balearica, a Thyrrenian endemism (Majorca and Corsica) thought to be extinct in Corsica and for many years thought to be endangered in Majorca, although lately more plant populations have been found in the Serra de Tramuntana.