9781422278062

SPAIN’S GEOGRAPHY & LANDSCAPE

Flora and Fauna

The variety of Spain’s landscape is reflected in its flora: among Spain’s trees are pines, cork oak trees, and beech trees; its flowering plants include orchids, gentians, lavender, and rosemary.

Spain’s native animals are relatively small: deer, ibex,

tortoises, bats, snakes (including a venomous viper), and other small creatures; only a small number of bears, wolves, and lynxes remain.

ABOVE: Cantabrian brown bear.

Native birds include vultures, eagles, kites, bustards, storks, and flamingos. Many other bird species stop off on their migration routes from Europe to Africa.

Along Spain’s coasts, between the mountains and the seas, are narrow strips of lowland. They are widest along the Golfo de Cádiz, where the coastal plains join the Andalusian Plain, and along the southern and central eastern coasts. The narrowest coastal plains are along the Bay of Biscay, where the Cordillera Cantábrica Mountains rise up close to the shore. The Islands The Balearic Islands are in the Mediterranean, fifty miles (80 kilometers) off Spain’s eastern coast. These mountainous islands are actually an extension of the Sistema Penibético that crosses Spain’s plateau. The islands form an archipelago with a total land area of 193 square miles (500 square kilometers). Their highest point (1,400 feet, or 426 meters) is in Majorca, close to the coast. 14