Sierra de Huétor

Fauna and flora

Pine forests dominate here, like the cedar of the Atlas and fir, some listed unusual trees -the Cedars at Vivero de la Alfaguara and the fir forest of Barranco de la Umbría-. Beneath these pines a wide variety of mushrooms are home to other species, as red pine or cap mushrooms or summer boletales. Some patches of holm oaks that survived the coal merchants are visible - Solana de las Romera- that, where there is more humidity, like at Fuente Fría and El Llano de la Cuna, alternating with Pyrenean oak, scrubland and patches of lavender. These woods shelter a number of small birds, several birds of prey and one of Europe's largest coleoptera, the longhorn beetle. The peaks of Sierra Arana, which are home to padded species and broom (blue, pink and Erinacea anthyllis), camomile of the mountains and low juniper, are areas of great ecological value, with permanent channels -Fardes River- and clayey ones -Cerro del Calar Blanco-. The first is dominated by a forest of willows and ash, while the second hosts the greatest number of endemic species: thyme and dolomitic rosemary with presence of a unique jarilla (Helianthemum raynaudii). This is a land of birds of prey and animals adapted to the rocky surface, as mountain goats or golden eagles, but also a number of butterflies, native crab, common trout, dragonflies, damselflies… and a small snail only found in these villages and evidence of the quality of its waters: Boetersiella sturmi.