Madeira Stock, Matthiola maderensis Lowe, is an endemic specie from the Madeira Archipelago, locally called Goivo da Rocha or Cravo de Burro.

It lives in grounds and cliffs near the coast until 100 m high. Its beautiful violet flowers appear from March to August. Sometimes some of the flowers are white.

Euphorbia piscatoria Ait. is an endemic bush from Madeira Archipelago, known as Smooth Spear-Leaved Spurge and locally called Figueira do Inferno. It is very common in cliffs and near the coast till 300m of altitude.

Its sap was once used by the fishermen to capture fish from the low depth waters near the coast.

It blooms from April to May.

Madeira Island has a volcanic origin with 60-70 millions of years. Its endemic flora, represented mainly by trees from the Lauraceae Family, by Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco) and by some ferns, was found in fossil layers in southern Europe. These species appeared in Miocene and Pliocene from the Tertiary Era, and their age is estimated to 20 millions of years.

Actually they are only present in Madeira and Canary Islands so it can be deduced that Madeira's native forest was once represented in Southern Europe and in Mediterranean Basin where it became extinct because of the climaterical changes (low temperatures come from the north and dry weather from the south). The atlantic archipelagos were protected from this dramatical changes due to their oceanic localization that offered them a certain amenity.

Madeira's indigenous forest, the Lorel Forest, is therefore a living relic with Tertiary origin, being the bigger and the best conserved forest from the Macaronesia archipelagos. So Madeira has the best and the biggest spot of Lorel Forest in the world.

Due to its great importance, it was recently classified as a biogenetic reserve and was included in the european net of the biogenetic reserves. The biogenetic reserves are european protected areas where ecosystems, biotypes and unique, rare or in danger specimens occur.