English translation: monteverde / greenwood / laurel wood and fayal heath/ laurel forests
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08:49 Nov 14, 2011
Spanish to English translations [PRO] Environment & Ecology
Spanish term or phrase:monte verde
A text talking about the vegetation on El Hierro in the canary islands:
Los principales ecosistemas se distribuyen de forma escalonada: matorral costero de plantas crasas como las tabaibas y cardones, bosque termófilo de sabinar, monte verde o fayal-brezal con retazos de laurisilva y, finalmente, el pinar canario
Its very hard to look for as its such a common name for urbanizaciones, hotels and restaurants and so on
Is it something specific or can I go with something generic like scrub or bush?
Explanation: Vaya, estos días todo el mundo habla de esta pequeña isla :-)
Monteverde (normalmente como una sola palabra, no dos) es un nombre común (y no propio, i.e. no es un topónimo ni nada por el estilo) que se usa en El Hierro para referirse a cierto tipo de vegetación. Esta vegetación incluye especies propias de bosques característicos como la laurisilva o el fayal-brezal.
he visto el nombre sin traducir en algunas guías turísticas, pero también he encontrado traducciones más o menos extendidas.
Te pongo aquí las opciones que me parecen más acertadas: dejarlo tal cual, traducirlo literlamente, o explicar lo que denomina.
Sorry, I didn't notice the title "El monteverde" (so "bosque verde" is definitely the same thing) and I see your point about "fayal-brezal con retazos de laurisilva". Perhaps after all it would be better to use the Spanish term, or give a literal translation like "green forest".
is "El Monteverde". William's context defines monte verde as "fayal-brezal con retazos de laurisilva" (two types of vegetation), in fact he could just put monteverde since the term is defined
Quite true (they actually refer to "bosque verde", but they probably mean the same thing). William's source says "monte verde o fayal-brezal". The two types of "bosque verde" mentioned in your source are "fayo-brezal" and "laurisilva", so it looks as though "monte verde" is being used here to refer specifically to the other type, "laurisilva".
This source suggests it is a synomym of laurisilva
08:57 Nov 14, 2011
- El fayal-brezal ocupa el mismo espacio climático que el monte verde o laurisilva, en laderas de altitud media y a barlovento de los alisios, vientos
que aportan humedad constante en forma de lluvia o de nieblas.
Explanation: Canaries has vegetation (laurel forest) that used to grow on the European continent but no longer does due to climatic changes. It survives in Canaries because of its micro-climate. Because Canaries has its own specific vegetation I would keep the Spanish word. Here is a photo, the vegetation shown here is trees:
Explanation: Vaya, estos días todo el mundo habla de esta pequeña isla :-)
Monteverde (normalmente como una sola palabra, no dos) es un nombre común (y no propio, i.e. no es un topónimo ni nada por el estilo) que se usa en El Hierro para referirse a cierto tipo de vegetación. Esta vegetación incluye especies propias de bosques característicos como la laurisilva o el fayal-brezal.
he visto el nombre sin traducir en algunas guías turísticas, pero también he encontrado traducciones más o menos extendidas.
Te pongo aquí las opciones que me parecen más acertadas: dejarlo tal cual, traducirlo literlamente, o explicar lo que denomina.
Explanation: Deborah's discussion comments have made me reconsider this, so I have hidden my previous answer, "laurel forest", and replaced it with this suggestion. Although the evidence linking "monte verde" in the Canaries to laurisilva/laurel forest is very solid, it is also true that the term is used to denote more than just that. The source Deborah cites refers to two types of "monte verde" or "monteverde": "fayal-brezal" and "laurisilva", and exactly these two are mentioned in the source; but the latter indicates that the "monte verde" it's talking about consists of a combination of the two: "monte verde o fayal-brezal con retazos de laurisilva". In this context, the translation "laurel forest" for "monte verde" clearly will not do.
However, I don't think "monte" simply means "uplands" here. "Fayal-brezal" and "laurisilva" are quite definitely two types of forest, specifically "bosque húmedo", for which the term "temperate cloud forest" is widely used to refer to the Canaries.
(In other words, the "fayal-brezal", consisting mainly of "faya (Myrica faya)" and "brezo arbóreo (Erica arborea)", is precisely the "tree heath and wax myrtle" mentioned in Lisa's source.)
"Although large areas have been deforested, the upland areas of La Palma retain some of the temperate cloud forest, or laurisilva (laurel forest), dominated by Laurus, but including Juniperus cedrus (Canary Islands Juniper) and other trees. This is a relic of the Pliocene subtropical forests which used to cover all the Canary Islands." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Palma
"A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. [...]
Distribution of temperate cloud forests
[...]
Spain - Canary Islands (laurisilva)
[...]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Forest
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
