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Ponta de São Lourenço (Portuguese for the "Point of Saint Lawrence") is the easternmost point of the island of Madeira. It is inside the town of Caniçal and forms a part of the municipality of Machico. Its terrain are made up of rocks and herbaceous vegetation. Since 1982, the headland is a nature reserve, where it has the conservation of its endemic plants including '' Matthiola maderensis'', '' Echium nervosum'', and '' Andryala glandulosa'', and it has fauna, including birds, insects, and molluscs. One of them is '' Monachus monachus'', a seal. Marine fauna are in the waters surrounding the headland.
Northeast of the islet is
Northeast of the islet is Porto Santo
Porto Santo Island () is a Portuguese island and municipality northeast of Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean; it is the northernmost and easternmost island of the archipelago of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Ocean west of Europe an ...
, and southeast is Bugio and the Deserted Islands. Nearby are a few islets with the easternmost being Ilhéu do Farol (Farol Islet), where its nearby lighthouse is located.
The headland's highest point is Pico do Furado. There is a path which takes about an hour to walk from the headland entrance. To the west is the New Port of Madeira.
The headland's geology consists of pyroclastic rocks as well as basalt dykes (dikes) and some coasts being eroded. The group dates back to the Late Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
, about 100,000 years ago."A Geological tour of the Archipelago of Madeira", Maria Luisa Ribeiro Miguel, Magalhães Ramalho, Direcção Regional do Comércio, Indústria e Energia Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, p 37 and 75
Important Bird Area
Ponta de São Lourenço, along with the islets of Ilhéuda Cevada and Ilhéu do Farol at the eastern end, have been recognised as anImportant Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
(IBA) by BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...
for their seabird
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...
colonies
A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...
, including the largest Caspian gull
The Caspian gull (''Larus cachinnans'') is a large gull and a member of the herring and lesser black-backed gull complex. The scientific name is from Latin. ''Larus'' appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and ''cachinnans'' ...
colony in Madeira.
References
External links
* {{authority control Landforms of Madeira Machico Natura 2000 in Portugal Important Bird Areas of Madeira