* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
This end of the month of February, in a spring-like winter, the phenomenon of color contrast between the field and the forest has been installed in the landscape of the surroundings of Sant Llorenç del Munt, as can be seen in this report in The Photos of the Readers of La Vanguardia.
It can be perfectly admired in the rural area of ??Matadepera, in Vallès Occidental, where the green of the groves combines with the pink and whitish of the fruit trees. The king is the almond tree in bloom.
The most visual spectacle is offered by the almond tree. And this time of year, even in winter, is ideal to contemplate this beautiful tree from the Rosaceae family.
Almond trees bloom much earlier than other fruit trees, which usually wait for the arrival of spring. Flowering generally occurs around the months of February and March, but it is increasingly observed that it progresses towards mid or late January, as has also happened this year.
One of its varieties has been cultivated for millennia to use its seeds, almonds, as food and as raw material to obtain its oil. The other, the bitter almond tree, produces seeds that cannot be consumed due to their content of amygdalin, a toxic substance.
