So, having settled in, we walked to Teror. Though there was a cross-country route, it was raining so we kept to the road even though this followed the contours of the barranco so was at least twice as long as the more direct route. But it did give great views of the town as it skirted around, following the flattest route.

Teror is famous, as I said last year, for the Virgin of the Pine and is a popular attraction for day trippers but it is a lovely place for the architecture alone and it has a market on Saturday and, when we arrived, on Sunday morning. The rest of the trip was in Puerto de Mogan in the south which has a Friday market but the one in Teror was much more authentic, with foods and local produce and not just tat.

I was delighted to find one of my favourite plants, Canarina canariensis, growing in the scrub on north-facing slopes, the angular, fleshy stems terminating in huge, orange bells. I have never seen this in the south and it seems to need more moisture than the arid areas allow even though, when grown under glass in the UK, it needs very careful watering. Unusually, for a campanula (relative) it has six petals and fleshy berries rather than dry seed pods, which are traditionally eaten as a food. the flowers resemble Fritillaria imperialis in colour, shape and size. The colour of the flowers and copious nectar are suggestive that the flowers are pollinated by sunbirds, along with some other Canarian species, even though these birds are not present on the islands – perhaps the plants are relics of plants from Africa.

canarina canariensis, Gran Canaria, Teror, teror market