Retama

1909 We were travelling now over pretty rough ground, immediately along the edge of a deep gorge, displaying in section several cataracts of lava. On a portion of the opposite side was a steep slope of volcanic rubbish, loose, cindery, and one would think in such constant motion that no plants could retain a footing thereon. Nor can any of them whatever do so, except this admirable retama, and that rejoices in the site, and flourishes. How wonderful the adaptations of Nature to the necessities of different regions. For here, where the ceaseless motion of the sliding particles composing a hillside, destroys every other living thing; where the aridity of the soil during many month is only surpassed by the aridity of the air, which is drier than that of Sahara, Nature has produced a plant, that on the mere remembrance of winter rain, long since evaporated, can furnish no contemptible supply of wood; and with its richly-stored white flowers, arranged in close rows along its smaller branches, affords illimitable honey-making materials to all the bees of the country.

Charles Piazzi Smyth, Tenerife: An Astronomer’s Experiment (1858)