Return

Rec Traient and the Island of en Reixac

Index card

Introduction

The Island of en Reixac was, as its name suggests, one of the islands that formed in the middle of the lake of Ullastret, which has now virtually vanished, some 150 metres beyond the other bank of the Rec Traient, which you have been following since the Mas de l’Illa, and which is partly responsible for the draining of the lake.

This place, with the presence of the lake, must have been very productive in the past as just on the surface of the old island, are the remains of an Iberian settlement excavated in the 1980s and 1990s, contemporary with and complementing the settlement of Puig de Sant Andreu, which you will head towards next.

In the Rec Traient, there is a large bed of common reed (photo), one of the native grasses associated with aquatic environments that is most representative of our land and which is ecologically and culturally important.

Here in the middle of the fields, the reedbeds provide a band of shelter for some species of small birds and other species such as small amphibians, reptiles and mammals. It also has a certain natural capacity for regenerating the waters, and so is often used as a purifier when restoring small lakes and other wetlands.

Common reed is also useful for artisans and other trades who use their dry stalks to make roofs, mats, windbreaks, brushes..., all sorts of things.

Images