Quinta de São Pedro

As most of you know I recently returned from Portugal. The Biology department took a group of undergraduate students over for a week and I was invited to help with plant identification. I will produce a manual of the flora of the Quinta de São Pedro for future undergraduates since a class goes every year.

Situated on the Settubul peninsula it is about 5km from the Atlantic coast. The Quinta, Portugese for country estate is a reserach station set-up to accomodate university students on ten acres of both cultivated and natural grounds. The students sleep in dorms while staff have comfortable en suite rooms( yes I had a comfortable en suite).

The Quinta is run by Armin Pricher who is an Austrian trained botanist and a very accomplished flute player. On the final night Armin gave a concert in the hall, of flute music from around the world. The two hour concert showcased flutes he had made and collected and terminated with him playing and singing the Samba in Portugese to dancing students. I have a couple of his CD's and will share them with those interested upon my return.

The Quinta is loacted between the Atlantic climate of NW Europe and the Mediterranean climate to the south, and has a very diverse mix of both plant, mammal and insect species.

The Quinta has many soil types with unique vegetation mixes which are representative of the local landscape and include meadows, macchia (scrubland) and garrigue (scrubland groves of pine, eucalyptus and acacia trees). The flora is incredible and as some of the later postings will show even the apparently mundane macchia was in bloom with Cistus, Aspodelhus, Narcissus, Fritillaria and other wild and unusual species.