Teide

Teide National Park occupies the high ground of Tenerife, above the sea of clouds formed by the trade wind. Its structural element is the Las Cañadas Caldera, a depression some sixteen kilometres across enclosed by a sheer-walled escarpment, within which rises the Teide-Pico Viejo stratovolcano. Teide is the highest point in Spain and, measured from the ocean floor, one of the most voluminous volcanic edifices on the planet. The landscape brings together practically the whole repertoire of volcanic forms: ropy and block lava flows, domes, cinder cones, obsidian and pumice. The aridity and extreme radiation of the high mountains have selected a flora with a very high proportion of endemics, among them the red tajinaste, whose flower spike can exceed two metres. The fauna is mainly invertebrate and highly endemic, alongside the Tenerife lizard and birds such as the blue chaffinch.