Circuito Interpretativo da RNP Arzila

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This interpretative trail, beginning and ending at the Interpretation Centre of Paul de Arzila Nature Reserve with a length of about 1.9 km, enables you to know the Reserve characteristics, passing through complementary protection area with bushes, forests and flooded area where you can observe the bird’s characteristics of wetlands in the observatories and observation tower. It also has a small sample of water lifting tools, where you can observe the techniques used in the past to withdraw water from ditches and wells. The swampy area occupies the valley floor and consists mainly of Common Reed (Phragmites australis), Bulrush (Scirpus lacustris), Cattails (Typha spp.), Rushes (Juncus spp.) and lots of herbaceous species; in this area also occur arboreal and shrub formations, formed by massifs of Grey Willow (Salix atrocinerea), Common Alder (Alnus glutinosa) and some dispersed Narrow-leafed Ash (Fraxinus angustifolia), elms (Ulmus spp.), Black Poplar (Populus nigra) and other willows. The forested area occupies most of the slopes that flank the marsh and is composed mainly of Maritime Pine (Pinus pinaster), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), Cork oak (Quercus suber) and Portuguese oak (Quercus faginea ssp broteroi) this one constitutes also a spot almost on its own, and even the English oak (Quercus robur); in the understory, is often the Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), the Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), the Elder (Sambucus nigra), the Laurel (Laurus nobilis), the Butcher's Broom (Ruscus aculeatus), several species of gorse (Ulex spp.), heathers (Erica spp.), rock roses (Cistus spp.) and creepers. You can also be surprised, at any time, with one of the almost 130 bird species referenced here.