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The pine forest of Hoyocasero

Hoyocasero, Burgohondo - El Tiemblo - Cebreros, Ávila

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The pine forest of Hoyocasero

Nature · Hoyocasero, Burgohondo - El Tiemblo - Cebreros, Ávila

A Scots pine forest on the slopes south of Hoyocasero, home to more than four hundred higher plant species across three layers, and preserving Eurosiberian relict species and endemics not found anywhere else in the Sistema Central. It covers barely 150 hectares, crossed by the Pinar stream, which forms a peat bog before flowing into the Alberche; already in the 19th century few botanists travelling through central Spain failed to visit it, and the pharmacist and botanist Carlos Pau described it as the richest he knew in Spain. Among its roughly 500 species of vascular plants, the mountain artichoke and the Hoyocasero bramble were first described for science here, the latter taking its name from the village's old place name, Hoyoquesero.

Photo: Imène Chakroun Kaied-hassin (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What to see and do in Hoyocasero