La Palma Island, Canary islands- Close-up of rosin on Canary pine - Stockfoto

Detail of the resin emanating from a Canary pine. Pinus canariensis or Canary pine is a conifer endemic to the Canary Islands. It can be said that it is a "fossil tree": it was extinguished in the European continent 5 million years ago ... but it remained alive in the Canary Islands. The pine forests of the Canaries, which were destroyed every volcanic eruption, developed an amazing capacity for regeneration: resistance against fire thanks to the thick cork layer of its trunk. That is why, when a fire burns the forests of La Palma island, canary pine survives. It only burns in its outer parts, which favors it recovers completely in a few years. The island of La Palma is an island of the Atlantic Ocean belonging to the archipelago of the Canary Islands (Spain). Since 2002, the entire island is a Biosphere Reserve by Unesco. Due to its formation and location, La Palma presents a great variety of landscapes, due to the diversity of ecosystems that it presents, from the coastal arid to the very humid forest formation of laurisilva, in addition to forests of pine forests and a high mountain ecosystem . All this diversity has given him the nicknames of "La Isla Bonita" (The Beautiful island) and "La Isla Verde" (The green island).