Government Pavilion, C/ Padre Herrera s/n
P.O. Box 456
38200, San Cristóbal de La Laguna
Santa Cruz de Tenerife - Spain
Switchboard Tel.: (+34) 922 31 90 00
Hours: Mon-Fri, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Canary Islands Flora Garden
Canary Islands Flora Garden
Canary Islands Flora Garden
Violet community
At higher altitudes than the island of Tenerife, above 2700 m in the north and 3000 m in the south, the environmental conditions are extreme (rainfall less than 500 mm annually, temperatures that generally do not exceed 8º C on average annually), the substrate is made up of siliceous lavas, stony ground or lapilli fields, and very few plants can survive.
However, in this inhospitable environment, where the landscape could be defined as a stony desert, there is a final layer of vegetation characterized by the presence of the Teide violet.
Although this community was originally described taking into account Viola cheiranthifolia (Teide violet) as the only characteristic species, currently there are known to be two violets endemic to the high peaks of the island of Tenerife, with the Guajara violet (Viola guaxarensis) being a species described as a scientific novelty in 2020.
