El Yunque
| El Yunque | ||
|---|---|---|
 Baracoa Bay with El Yunque in the background |
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| height | 575 m | |
| location | Guantánamo (Province) | |
| Mountains | Sierra del Purial | |
| Coordinates | 20 ° 21 '8 " N , 74 ° 34' 26" W | |
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| rock | limestone | |
| particularities | Table Mountain | |
El Yunque (Spanish for "the anvil") is a biosphere reserve Cuchillas del Toa lying Table Mountain in the east of Cuba . The 575 m high limestone rock is located in the middle of dense tropical rainforest about 7 km west of the port city of Baracoa in the province of Guantánamo .
The mountain was sacred to the natives of Cuba, the Taíno . The El Yunque served seafarers as an orientation aid thanks to its distinctive shape. In 1987 UNESCO declared the entire area around El Yunque to be a UNESCO biosphere reserve "Cuchillas del Toa".
Table Mountain can be climbed on foot, but it is necessary to cross a river. There is a bust of Christopher Columbus on the summit .
Flora and fauna
The vegetation of El Yunque can be roughly divided into two levels. At the foot of the mountain and as long as the slope allows it, timber and the typical cocoa and banana plantations determine the appearance. As soon as the terrain becomes too steep for the forest to be used, there is natural tropical rainforest with numerous animal and plant species.
Only relatively little water is available for the plants, as the rainwater quickly seeps into the porous limestone. This led to the development of a wide variety of endemic species. For example, two carnivorous plants are at home here and also the stone slices - one of the oldest plant species in the world. Numerous specimens of the endemic palm species Coccothrinax yunquensis can also be found on the green slopes of El Yunque .
In addition to the impressive flora of the mountain, El Yunque has an equally extraordinary fauna ready: Endangered bird species such as the ivory woodpecker and the Cuban snail harrier have their home here. The Sminthillus limbatus , which is only a few millimeters long , and the rat-like Cuban sand weevil also have their habitat here.
credentials
- ↑ a b c http://www.cubaworld.de/cubainfos/cubas-sehenwuerdheiten/el-yunque.html
- ↑ "Coccothrinax yunquensis" . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families . Visited: October 10, 2011.
- ↑ Carlo Morici (1996): coccothrinax yunquensis (PDF; 2.5 MB), Principes 40 (4) 1996 pp. 204-207