Cartografía histórica de los palmerales de Palmera Datilera(Phoenix Dactylifera L., Arecaceae) en el Sureste de España

Abstract

In the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) grows in different habitats, more or less altered by the man. The most important populations comprise thousands of individuals. These palm groves are located in the low areas of Vinalopó and the Segura rivers, in and around towns like Elche, Albatera, Callosa and Orihuela. These “palmerales” account more than half million of individuals of palms (young and adult). Next to the previous ones, as much toward the north as toward the south remains of palm groves exist, as that of Alicante, those of the surroundings of Murcia or those associated to the river Chícamo and their tributaries in Abanilla and Fortuna. In the coast of Murcia and Almería and penetrating to the interior through the courses of the diverse ravines are other populations, very dispersed today and with few individuals, but that in the past they could have a bigger importance. The palms of the ravines can be due to remains of existent orchards next to the courses of water (postcultural palms) (many of those of the Rambla de la Parra), to feral individuals coming from those or from other gardens (subspontaneous palms) or to the existence of likely non cultivated populations (colonial palms, hybrid palms and autochthonous palms). The study of the historical data and of the images coming from photogrametric surveys (as that of Ruiz de Alda for the Confederation Hidrográfica del Segura in the 30’s of the 20th century), compared with the field study and the use of resources like Google Earth it allows us to develop a historical cartography of the palm for the Southeast of Spain, with which we can evaluate whether the current remains as representative or not of the extension of the cultivation of the palm in the past.