Meadows

As is well known, there are natural meadows and artificial meadows. The former consist of various species of plants, for the most part not sown by man, while the latter are formed by a single plant that man sows and cultivates for a certain time. The meadows of Madeira belong to the first category; only a few small artificial meadows exist, at the quinta (country estate) of Palheiro and in a few other places.

There are natural meadows in the lower zone (coastal belt) of Madeira, in the middle zone and in the interior. The last of these cover the largest area, although they are not always the most important as regards the quality and number of species.

In the south of Madeira, the dominant species along the whole coastal fringe is Lotus glaucus (trevina), a perennial of the family Leguminosae that grows in the driest places and is regarded by everyone as good fodder. Further inland, and common on the grassy ground of the southern lowland, are the following species: Trifolium angustifolium, T. scabrum, Scorpiurus sulcata (cabreira), Psoralea bituminosa (fedegoso), Melilotus parviflora, Lotus parviflorus, Galactites tomentosa (cardo), Plantago lanceolata and P. Lagopus (tanchagem or orelha-de-cabra), Andropogon hirtus (feno), Avena fatua (balanco), Cynosurus echinatus, Cynodon Dactylon (grama), Bromus madritensis (panasco), Hordeum murinum, Lolium multiflorum (azevém), etc.

All these plants, and many others besides, thrive in dry places; in damp places the first of the plantains mentioned, Trifolium repens (trevo), Paspalum paspalodes, etc., are common.

Because so much land is taken up by crops, the meadows of the lower zone cover only a limited area. Among the crops and along the edges of paths, however, many forage plants also appear, among which we shall mention Bidens pilosa (amor-de-burro), Cichorium Endivia (almeirão), Senecio vulgaris, Setaria verticillata, Agrostis verticillata, Panicum sanguinale, etc., etc. Panicum barbinode (capim) and P. maximum (erva-da-Guiné) are two thoroughly acclimatised grasses, which livestock breeders cultivate to feed their animals.

On the rocks from Seixal (‘pebble shore’) to Porto Moniz (‘Moniz’s harbour’) grows Sideroxylon Marmulano (marmulano), a shrub whose foliage makes good feed for livestock. Between São Vicente and Ponta Delgada (‘slender point’) grows Genista madeirensis, a species close to the ‘gacia’ and the ‘tegasaste’ of the Canary Islands, which is also used as animal feed.

The meadows of Madeira’s lower zone (coastal belt) extend up to an altitude of 200 metres on the south coast and 150 on the north. Above that lie the meadows of the middle zone, which occupy the sides of ravines too steep to be cultivated, and various hills, peaks and other ground not yet taken over by crops. They are often cut through or bounded by pine woods, and species of the interior zone appear in them very frequently, but associated with others that only begin to dominate from a certain altitude, such as Ornithopus perpusillus, O. compressus, Trifolium agrarium, Briza minor (chocalheirinha), Holcus lanatus, Poa trivialis, etc. Ulex europaeus, gorse (carqueja), is abundant in Madeira’s second botanical zone, where the commonest meadow species appear to be Vulpia bromoides and Andropogon hirtus. The latter dominates on dry hills and the former in cool or damp places, where it frequently forms a dense, fine sward that livestock eat greedily.

From 750 or 800 metres upwards begin the meadows and pastures of the interior, which take in the mountain tops, the unwooded central ravines and also part of the island’s southern and northern slopes. In dry places in the mountains, Leontodon nudicaulis, Aira proecox, Agrostis castellana, Lotus hispidus and Plantago lanceolata are very common. On the lower ground of the slopes these plants appear alongside others already mentioned for the meadows of the middle zone, and in the ravines of the interior alongside Deschampsia argenvea (barba de bode), Festuca Donax (palha carga), Cynosurus elegans and various other species that are peculiar, or almost peculiar, to these places and live only in damp or shaded spots.

In the ravines of the Ribeira da Metade (‘halfway stream’) and the Boa Ventura there grows a grass with succulent leaves, unfortunately very rare, which is considered one of the best forage plants on the island. This grass, Festuca albida, has already been cultivated with good results on a plot on the outskirts of Funchal. In the same Ribeira da Metade there is also a legume, Anthyllis Lemanniana, which we regard as an excellent forage plant, worthy of cultivation. Dactylis glomerata and Anthoxathum odoratum are plants which, though not common, occur in the second and third botanical zones of Madeira (1921).

The grasses of the meadows in Madeira’s lower zone (coastal belt) spring up or revive with the October rains and disappear, scorched by the heat of the sun, between April and May, except in waterlogged spots and in places frequently reached by irrigation water. In the middle and upper parts of the island, and especially in the zone constantly visited by mists, the grasses stay green for longer, until the middle or end of June. This is an advantage even for livestock farmers near the coast, who often go up there to gather them, covering considerable distances.

When the meadow grasses are dry, the animals are generally fed on potato haulms, on the leaves of the vine, of sugar cane and of the giant reed (cana de roca), on the plants that grow beside watercourses and on those that appear among the crops in frequently irrigated places. Hay from the island and hay imported from Portugal, together with banana stems chopped into small pieces and mixed with bran, are widely used to feed the stall-kept livestock of Funchal.

Since Madeira’s meadows receive no treatment of any kind, harmful or useless species abound in all of them. High in the mountains the animals graze freely on the grass that grows there, whereas in the lower zones the more general rule is for the plants to be cut green, as and when they are needed for the livestock’s daily feed.

Of the 30,000 hectares of uncultivated land in Madeira (1921), it may be assumed that 10,000 produce only grasses, of good or poor quality, for feeding animals. If this vast area were properly used – that is, if efforts were made to improve its yield – Madeiran livestock farming would gain a great deal, for all it needs in order to develop is more ample forage resources than the island now offers. With a little goodwill, it might not be an extremely difficult task to turn certain parts of the mountains, where only a thin and stunted turf grows, into highly fertile pastures capable of properly feeding part of the livestock population of our island.