Updated: 17 Nov. 2023
The environmental management activities at the Senhora da Alegria Bio-Reserve, under the project "Bio-Reserve Senhora da Alegria: a project for the benefit of the territory and the community", funded by the Environmental Fund, continue at a good pace.
In late September, we set to work to control the spread of two invasive species threatening the balance of part of the slope — and especially the populations of the precious Iberian endemic Campanula alata discovered here last year. They are beggarticks (Bidens frondosa) and Santa Barbara daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus).
Such interventions require the careful eye of our biologists, as the similarities with native plant species can be substantial. For example, the leaf of beggarticks closely resembles that of the native hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum), as we can see in the photographs below.
Beggarticks (Bidens frondosa), invasive exotic species
Hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum), native species
Already in October, we gathered 7 participants to prepare a planting area in a zone we intend to restore. The activity consisted of collecting acorns from Portuguese oak (Quercus faginea) and cork oak (Quercus suber), and pruning willows to improve their development and use the offcuts to create planting stakes. The acorns have already been planted and are now awaiting transplanting to their new home: the Senhora da Alegria Bio-Reserve.
