The Cabildo de Tenerife, through the Natural Environment and Security Management Area, withdrew more than 55 tons of tree of heaven specimens from protected natural spaces in 2022, out of the more than 241 total tons that were extracted from introduced species that They displace their own flora. It is an arboreal species, of good size that was used in other times in gardening.
This species has a great capacity to distort the landscape and generate closed environments where only one species is present, since it prevents the growth of others and affects infrastructures due to its rapid growth. This tree, native to China, also harbors harmful non-native insects, such as the spotted lanternfly, the scientists say.
“Last year, 28 specialists worked on the extraction of exotic flora from the island’s natural spaces, a complicated job given the large number of species that are dispersed in the environment,” said the Minister of Natural Environment Management, Isabel García.
“Due to the importance of conserving the island’s biodiversity, in its protected natural spaces, the Cabildo has continued with actions to control exotic flora invasive”, pointed out the counselor.
In addition, García stressed that the crews are equipped “with the methodologies and work protocols that have been developed in recent years, and thanks to this, it has been possible to mitigate the impact of some of these species, significantly in some Protected Areas. . We can observe this because, after successive actions, fewer and fewer individuals are found, they are more dispersed and they are younger”.
Data from last year
In this way, last year a total of 241 tons of exotic remains were produced, covering a global area of almost 2,600 hectares throughout the island of Tenerife.
The species that accounted for the largest area was the Rabo de Gato (Pennisetum setaceum) and the majority of actions were carried out on more than 1,400 hectares, with the Teno Rural Park being the protected natural space where the most actions were taken.
The crews have worked on more than 48 species, highlighting the amount of waste extracted, in addition to the aforementioned cat’s tail and tree of heaven, others known as the thousand loves, the pampean duster, the matoespuma, the multicava crassula or the common pitera.
