Pilancones Natural Park is located in

San Bartolomé de Tirajana San Bartolomé de Tirajana is a village and a Spanish municipality in the south-eastern part of the island of Gran Canaria in the Las Palmas province in the Canary Islands. With an area of , San Bartolomé de Tirajana is the largest municipal ...

municipality on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain. Its area is 5794.4 ha. It adjoins

Roque Nublo Roque Nublo (''Clouded Rock'', ''Rock in the Clouds'') is a volcanic rock on the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. It is tall, and its top is above sea level. The Roque Nublo is the third altitude of the island of Gran Canaria, aft ...

country park to the north, and

Fataga Fataga is a village in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana on the island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain). History The village can trace its origins back for more than 2000 years, when the area was inhabited by the Guanche ...

protected area to the east. The park plays an important role in soil protection and the replenishment of an aquifer, along which there are several ravines running southward which are of geomorphological interest and landscape value. The

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

forests on hilltops are a well-preserved habitat with abundant bird life. The park also harbours several varieties of

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

and

spurge ''Euphorbia'' is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to t ...

, and a number of aquatic habitats. The park takes its name from natural pools, formerly known locally as ''pilancones'', which remain after the runoff of water. Throughout the area there are threatened animal and plant species, and features of scientific interest.

Designations

The space was named as ''Parque Natural'' (Natural Park) ''de Ayagaures y Pilancones'' in 1987 and classified in 1994 as ''parque natural''. Within the park are open-country areas (''montes'') accessible to the public: “Ayagaures y Pilancones”, and the public amenity areas of "La Plata, San Bartolomé y Maspalomas" and "Montaña del Rey". It has also been declared an ecologically sensitive area and a zone of special protection for birds under an EU directive.

The Pino de Pilancones pine tree

Within the park stood the so-called ''Pino de Pilancones'' (Pilancones pine tree), of the Pinus canariensis variety, which was destroyed in a storm that struck Gran Canaria in 2008. Over 500 years old and 30-40m in height, it had been ranked among the hundred most notable trees of Spain. Its death was inevitable after the fires that ravaged part of the centre of the island in summer 2007. The

dendrochronologist Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...

M. Génova (with C. Santana and B. Martínez), studying growth patterns of a specimen of this tree sent to Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 2009, found an average age of 542 years, the oldest known age for any Canarian pine. To this period was added an estimated 8 years to reach the height from which the specimen was taken. In this way the Pino de Pilancones has been dated to around the winter of 1457-1458, at the end of the medieval period.''Los 550 años del Pino de Pilancones, el "abuelo forestal"''
Pellagofio, 5 September 2013

References

{{Gran Canaria Natural parks of Spain Landforms of Gran Canaria Protected areas of the Canary Islands