Flora

It is beyond dispute that fires and farming have caused the disappearance of many plant species, perhaps abundant before the island was settled. In compensation, however, numerous plants from other countries have become naturalised or acclimatised in Madeira, and some of them have brought changes to its flora that in many cases do not accord with the island’s geographical position. Sugar cane from the East Indies, the vine from Europe and Central Asia, the maritime pine from Europe, the acacias from Australia and the abundância from Mexico are species more or less acclimatised or naturalised, and in many places they give the vegetation of our island a character quite at odds with its original one.

The flora of the Madeira archipelago as known today comprises 931 phanerogams, 50 vascular cryptogams, 265 bryophytes and 916 thallophytes. If we set aside the naturalised plants, however, the group or division of the phanerogams is left with only 641 species and that of the vascular cryptogams with 45. Among the phanerogams there are 104 species that we regard as endemic and 55 that are common to the Madeira archipelago and to other groups of Atlantic islands. In other words, of the 641 species that we usually call native, 159 are not found in the nearby continental regions, although they are probably genuine representatives of a flora that once existed there.

In our archipelago 106 native woody plants are known, comprising trees, shrubs and subshrubs. The first two groups, which are the most important, are represented by 34 species: 10 of these are European, 1 is found in Madeira and the Azores, 3 in Madeira, the Azores and the Canary Islands, 11 in Madeira and the Canary Islands, and 9 are peculiar to Madeira, or endemic. These species are distributed among 22 families, 4 of which are not found in Europe, although one of them is represented in the neighbouring empire of Morocco.

While the Madeiran phanerogams and vascular cryptogams can be considered well studied, thanks to the patient research of the Baron of Castelo de Paiva, João M. Moniz, Gilbert Mandon, Lowe, Carlos de Menezes, Father Gonçalves da Costa and others, the same cannot be said of the cellular cryptogams, even though for some of their groups there are works worthy of the highest esteem that greatly ease the identification of species. Mosses, lichens and fungi are the cellular plants that have drawn most attention from collectors. This does not mean, however, that methodical and careful exploration of many parts of the island would not one day lead to the discovery of many species of these same groups not so far recorded in our land.

The distinguished men of science Richard Thomas Lowe, a British subject, and Carlos Azevedo de Meneses, an illustrious Madeiran, were the botanists who studied the flora of this island most extensively. They left substantial and notable works, which have been duly appreciated and praised by the scholars who pursue this scientific speciality.