Trail of Plaza de los Moros

When we have parked the car, we will see a panel with the route, which is marked with posts. We continue along the dirt track for about 650 metres, as we start to climb the north face of Pico Umbría.

In this stretch we see species typical of Mediterranean scrub: several kinds of rockrose, heathers, rosemary, mock privet… They are pioneer species, the first to grow when the woodland disappears because of farming or a fire, and they prepare the ground for trees to grow afterwards².

In the scrub you can tell apart up to six species of rockroses (Cistus ladanifer, C. crispus, C. populifolius, C. salviifolius, C. albidus and Halimium umbellatum), with broom thickets (Cytisus striatus and C. scoparius) and other species that red deer like very much, such as mock privet (Phillyrea angustifolia) and honeysuckle (Lonicera implexa).

We also find the first holm oaks (Quercus rotundifolia), the most representative tree of the Mediterranean woodland. It can reach 20 m in height, although it is often stunted, and then it is called a «carrasca». Its acorns ripen between October and December and feed many animals³.

A few metres before reaching the path a pretty panorama of the Montes de Toledo opens up, with the Horcajo visitor centre below, just behind an olive grove.

On the right-hand side, a post shows where the path continues. We climb some steps and enter the wood.

The steepest slopes, like this one, make work harder for people, and that is why the understorey is better preserved. It is a very leafy wood: the density of the foliage retains moisture and allows species adapted to these environments to live, such as climbers. The easiest to see is the honeysuckle (Lonicera implexa)⁴.

The slope faces north and gentle winds reach it, so humidity is relatively high. In addition, there are few red deer and wild boar to eat the plants. For both reasons, the vegetation is very well preserved: there are more than 40 woody species, counting trees, shrubs and bushes.

We leave the wood for a moment to cross a pedriza, which opens up the views again. Pedrizas, or scree slopes, were formed in the glaciations, when water got into the cracks of the quartzite, froze and split it. This process is called frost shattering, and the fragments piled up down the slope.

If the forest has not colonised the pedriza, it is because water keeps running beneath the stones. In the past, the people of these hills could find it by the sound, and removed stones until they opened small wells. Pedrizas also act as natural firebreaks: between one stone and the next there is nothing to burn.

Water runs beneath the stones. You can hear it.

We are getting closer to the summit and the holm oak still dominates this shady-slope wood, still immature. We walk under big strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo), tree heaths (Erica arborea) of more than 3 metres and laurustinus (Viburnum tinus), with mock privets and rockroses. They are the best resting places for large wildlife, because of the size of the scrub and the food their fruits provide⁵.

This Mediterranean patch also has cork oaks and Portuguese oaks, the odd Montpellier maple (Acer monspessulanum) and other climbers, such as black bryony (Dioscorea communis), as well as honeysuckle.

On the last stretch to the summit the Armorican Quartzite appears, a rock very rich in quartz and very resistant to erosion. Its walls have damp, shady corners where a rock-plant community lives, adapted to growing without soil and almost without nutrients⁶: foxgloves (Digitalis spp.), pinks (Dianthus lusitanus), navelwort (Umbilicus rupestris), white stonecrop (Sedum album), Jasione crispa and many ferns (Asplenium ceterach, Asplenium trichomanes, Cheilanthes hispanica).

After going round some quartzite layers we reach the highest point, Pico Umbría, at 817 metres⁷. In the village it is called the Plaza de los Moros, although the piled stones on the summit are a good deal older than any Moor: they are the remains of a rectangular Bronze Age construction. At that time small fortified settlements were built beside the wells in the valleys and defensive towers on the heights, and this may have been one of them⁸.

From above you see a landscape of thousands of hectares, from the Sierra de las Villuercas (Guadalupe, Cáceres) to the Peñafiel peak (Ventas con Peña Aguilera, Toledo), with the Rocigalgo massif (1,449 m) opposite and Pico Vicente (1,430 m). Below lie Horcajo and its reservoir.

If we start early in the cold months, we can see seas of fog.

A Bronze Age tower with a trig point on top.

We continue along the ridge. The ancient presence of people on the heights, through settlements or trades such as charcoal burning, left its mark in some herbaceous communities with very pretty flowers, such as the lupin (Lupinus hispanicus) or Leucanthemopsis flaveola.

Here you can notice the difference between shady and sunny slopes. On the sunny slope, which is warmer, wild olive woods appear, dominated by the wild olive (Olea europaea var. sylvestris), accompanied by shrubby germander (Teucrium fruticans) and white asparagus (Asparagus albus).

In the holm oak woods there are also Portuguese oaks (Quercus faginea), which stand drought less well than the holm oak. Their big leaves dry in autumn, but do not fall until the new shoots come out in spring: it is a marcescent tree⁹.

The way back is along the same shady slope, but by another path that leaves us on the track from the start. On the descent we see large narrow-leaved mock privets (Phillyrea angustifolia) and broad-leaved ones (Phillyrea latifolia).

There are also cork oaks. The holm oak and the cork oak share the Peninsula according to water and cold: the holm oak occupies the driest areas of the centre, and the cork oak looks for more moisture and avoids the cold, on the coast or in inland hills like this one, accompanied by shrubs such as laurustinus¹⁰.

Along the way there are other interesting species: the terebinth (Pistacia terebinthus), butcher's-broom (Ruscus aculeatus), gorse, which should not be confused with juniper, and pitch trefoil (Bituminaria bituminosa). In autumn, after the rains, mushrooms also come up.

Back on the track, we retrace the 650 metres from the start to the car park.

In the late afternoon you can see red deer or roe deer, especially on the left-hand side of the track between the car park and the road. Wild boar may also appear. Try not to be caught by nightfall on the route: it is a little frightening to hear ungulates stirring the woodland right next to you. Before dusk, besides, it is easy to see nightjars sitting on the track.

In the sky, with a little luck, Cinereous Vultures, Griffon Vultures and Golden Eagles.