Ilhéu Chão is a small

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

within the

Desertas Islands The Desertas Islands (, , "Deserted Islands") are a small archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the larger Portuguese Madeira Archipelago. The archipelago is located off the coast of Morocco. Deserta Grande Island is located about southea ...

, a small chain of islands which are in turn within the Madeira archipelago. Chão is located to the southeast of

Madeira Island Madeira is a Portuguese island, and is the largest and most populous of the Madeira Archipelago. It has an area of , including Ilhéu de Agostinho, Ilhéu de São Lourenço, Ilhéu Mole (northwest). As of 2021, Madeira had a total population o ...

. The island is approximately long by wide. It has steep cliffs at the shore line and a very flat top formed by lava flows. The average height of the plateau is 100 metres. A narrow channel, 500 metres, separates it from

Deserta Grande Island The Deserta Grande Island is the main island of the Desertas Islands archipelago, a small chain of three islands in the Portuguese Madeira Islands Archipelago of Macaronesia. It is located southeast of Madeira Island, off the western coast ...

. There is no fresh water on the island. Attempts to dry farm the island were unsuccessful. There are two structure on the island, a fourteen metre tall lighthouse on the northern end, and a one story building about 600 metres south of it.

Ecology

There are no rabbits on Ilhéu Chão, unlike Madeira Island and Deserta Grande Island. Two dominant plant species, the succulent ''

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum ''Mesembryanthemum crystallinum'' (the common, 'crystalline' or 'crystallinum' iceplant, or simply 'iceplant') is a species of Annual plant, annual/perennial, Succulent plant, succulent flowering plant in the ''Mesembryanthemum'' genus of the Aiz ...

'' and the alkali seepweed ''

Suaeda vera ''Suaeda vera'', also known as shrubby sea-blite, Retrieved 29 June 2012 shrubby seablight or in the USA sometimes as alkali seepweed, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae (formerly classified under the Chenopodiaceae). It ...

'', are left over from cultivation in the nineteenth century where they were grown to be burned for

soda ash Sodium carbonate (also known as washing soda, soda ash, sal soda, and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield alkaline solutions in water ...

manufacture.

Notes and references

External links

Madeiraarchipelago.com: photos of the Desertas Islands—''Ilhas Desertas''
Islands of the Autonomous Region of Madeira Uninhabited islands of Portugal {{madeira-geo-stub