The Monte de El Pardo is a large forested area in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Spain, extending roughly across one quarter of the total municipal area. The Monte de El Pardo has an area of 15289.12 ha. It was already mentioned as hunting ground in the Alfonso XI's ' (mid 14th century). Reputed to be one of the best preserved mediterranean forests in Europe, it is protected as

Special Protection Area A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and cer ...

(ZEPA in Spanish) since 1987. It is owned by

Patrimonio Nacional Patrimonio Nacional ( en, National Heritage) is a Spanish autonomous agency, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Presidency, that administers the sites owned by the Spanish State and used by the Monarch and the Spanish Royal Fam ...

. To a large extent, it is an holm oak forest, featuring also another tree varieties such as

cork oaks ''Quercus suber'', commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section ''Quercus'' sect. ''Cerris''. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring and as the cores ...

, Valencian oaks,

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arc ...

s, ashes, Montpellier maples, kermes oaks and

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

s and scrub plants such as

cistus ''Cistus'' (from the Greek ''kistos'') is a genus of flowering plants in the rockrose family Cistaceae, containing about 20 species (Ellul ''et al.'' 2002). They are perennial shrubs found on dry or rocky soils throughout the Mediterranean regi ...

, retama broom bushes, ''Phillyrea angustifolia'',

rosemary ''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was known by the scientific name ''Rosmari ...

and Spanish lavender.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * {{coord, 40, 32, N, 3, 48, W, display=title, region:ES_type:forest_source:GNS-enwiki Geography of Madrid Special Protection Areas of Spain Forests of Spain