MADEIRA ~The Laurisilva - UNESCO~

...Beautiful new UNESCO site... Maderia's natural beauty... a magical forest... it is the largest surviving area of laurel forest and is believed to be 90% primary forest... the levados are long narrow water channels invented by the early settlers for moving water to where it was required... now used for walking in the forest...  home to endemic bird species such as the Madeira long-toed pigeon.... with great Darwin stamp.. Thanks a lot!!




The laurisilva is an ancient forest that had been virtually wiped out. It once covered much of southern Europe tens of millions of years ago but now only a few small pockets on islands of the Atlantic Ocean exist. Madeira has the largest of them.( it makes up about 20 per cent of

The forest is mainly comprised of evergreen trees and bushes with flat, dark green leaves. It’s also referred to as a ‘laurel forest’ although not all the plants are actually from the laurel family. The laurisilva of Madeira has at least 76 types of native plants as well as the animals which rely on them.

Stamp:

The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Charles Darwin
(Issued 12-02-2009)