Blue Itinerary-Can Magrans

Can Magrans

In 1998 two nature trails were designed on the Bellaterra Campus: The Can Magrans trail and the Can Domènec trail. These trails take us to the most singular parts of the campus, where we can find the animal and plant species that are most typical of the area. Both trails are marked from beginning to end and take approximately an hour to walk. The aim is to promote the UAB's environmental values and maintain these areas.

The Can Magrans trail (the Blue Trail) goes round the back of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The trail mainly skirts crop fields and pinewoods and, on some stretches, holm and other oak woods.

Download the map of the blue trail

 

Can Magrans

The first part of the trail goes through a thick pine wood with some holm oaks. At this stage the plants that can be seen are typical of shrubland or scrub, such as Mediterranean buckthorn, hawthorn, broom, rosemary, thyme, rockrose, gorse (Ulex parviflorus) and many more, and also of dry or fallow fields and pinewoods. On the right we see the hill of Sant Pau, the highest point on the UAB campus.

Can Magrans

To our left we can see a grove of Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis), which was planted by the former Spanish National Institute for Nature Conservation (ICONA) in the eighties. Here, the Catalan Association for the Study and Protection of Nature (ADENC) conducted a campaign known as "One acorn, one tree" (ADENC, 1998-2001) to regenerate the population of holm oaks, so we can see saplings of these in amongst the pines. In fact, along much of this trail we will notice that holm oak woodland is trying to re-establish itself, in the form of young plants of the different species, usually in areas of little human activity.

Can Magrans

Further down the trail are the remains of a 20th century building known as Cal Truita and, around it, some of the plants that were grown in what must have been its garden (cypresses, a palm tree, century plants and firs) and crop fields (olive, almond and kaki trees).
In the most anthropised environments there are a large number of rodents: house mice, field mice and squirrels.