Variety of Italian flora
Italy can boast of being one of the richest European countries in terms of biodiversity, thanks in particular to its fragmented relief and the variety of its climates, from north to south. Three types of flora can be distinguished in the country, which correspond to the division of its territory: alpine, continental and Mediterranean. In total, the country is home to 7,000 different plant species and the Italian flora is, in this respect, the richest in Europe in terms of diversity. Some typically Mediterranean species can only be found in southern Italy, such as the Palinuro primrose, which grows mainly in the village of Cilento (Campania) whose name it bears, but also in a few isolated sites in Calabria - on the rocky coasts of Scalea, for example - or in Basilicata. The National Park of Cilento is home, in addition to these endemic primroses, to no less than 256 species of wild orchids. It is also classified as a Unesco Biosphere Reserve, like 19 other sites in Italy. Among these, we can mention for example the biosphere reserve of Circe in Lazio, or that of Sila, in Calabria. These reserves are managed by the Italian Ministry of the Environment.
Italy also protects its natural wealth in its 25 national parks. The first is the Gran Paradiso Park, founded in 1922 in the Aosta Valley, on the border of the French Vanoise National Park. It has a typical high mountain vegetation. there are 1,124 botanical species in the park (249 of which are classified as rare and 24 are listed in the Libro rosso delle piante d'Italia, which lists the plants threatened with extinction in the Italian flora). The territory of the Gran Paradiso Park, which covers more than 71,000 hectares, is characterized by its vast meadows, glaciers and pine forests.
It should be noted that the forest covers about 35% of the Italian territory. Among the most common trees are the beech, which can be found, for example, in the vast forests of the Foresta Umbra of the Gargano, or the Bosnian pine, an endemic species of the Pollino National Park in Calabria. It is in this park that the Patriarch of Pollino is located, a pine tree that is over 1,000 years old. If all this floral wealth is natural, we should note that the hand of man has contributed to the modification of the Italian landscape over the centuries by introducing plant species such as cypress and eucalyptus, but also the prickly pear, a contribution from antiquity, and the orange tree, from the Crusades, which are now an integral part of the landscape of southern Italy. These introductions have contributed to the development of biodiversity, but man has also been at the origin of less successful actions, contributing to the disappearance of local flora. This is the case in the Po Valley, where the forest has, over the centuries, been reduced to nothing in favor of industrialization and intensive agriculture.
Richness of the local fauna, from the mountains to the coast
With approximately 58,000 recorded species, Italy is also home to more than a third of the European fauna. As for its flora, it owes this great diversity to its variety of climates, reliefs and its geographical position, in the south of Europe and bathed by the sea. Therefore, there is a large number of habitats in the territory. In the northern part of the peninsula, several wild animal species such as wild boar, roe deer, badgers or coypu, omnipresent on the banks of the Ticino river in particular, have been identified. A large number of bird species also fly over northern Italy, such as the fishing falcon and herons. The place where the herons settle in groups to build their nests and reproduce is called, in Italian, garzaia. This word would derive from sgarzia which, in Milanese dialect, designates the herons. They breed near willows and poplars and not far from the rivers and the imposing rice fields that cover the Lomelline (province of Pavia, in Lombardy). Among the most beautiful heron reserves in this area are the Garzaia del lago di Sartirana and the one in Celpenchio. In the center of the country, the Abruzzo region, a real green lung, is well known for its impressive fauna, which includes wolves but also vipers and bears. The Marsican brown bear is the symbol of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise. It is an endemic species of central Italy, a subspecies of the brown bear, which lives in the wild. In the south of Italy, you will find migratory and marine birds such as seagulls, geese and wild ducks, which are the riches of the Mediterranean coast. In Basilicata, a rare species of black stork takes up residence every year during the nesting season in the Gallipoli Cognato regional park, in the small Lucanian Dolomites. It is an endangered and protected species. Finally, if your trip continues to the tip of the country, in Calabria, you may also have the chance to see dolphins off the coast!
All this biodiversity is protected, on the one hand by the State which takes care of and sets up various national parks, and on the other hand by an environmental activism represented in particular by Legambiente and WWF, which manage in Italy a hundredoasi. These protected areas, the first of which was created about 50 years ago, offer visitors the opportunity to discover natural beauty in its wild state while raising awareness about environmental protection. The development of agriturismi also contributes to this awareness. Indeed, true emblems of green tourism in Italy, these farms or dwellings located in the heart of agricultural areas allow you to discover the local natural wealth, regardless of the region in which you travel. Agriturismi are very successful in Italy and show a growing interest in environmental issues.
