| Informations Gargano Apuliea Italy |
Cities Gargano Italy :
Gargano Italy
In the Park different kinds of habitat coexist: rocky coasts, great valleys rich in rare floral and faunal species, ancient beech woods, Mediterranean pine woods. Some of the trees growing in the Park are more than 500 years old. From a faunal point of view, the peculiarity of the Park is the presence of the roe deer and of several kinds of woodpeckers, among which the great -spotted woodpecker, the middle-spotted woodpecker, the lesser-spotted woodpecker, and the Lilford's woodpecker. The last two of them are very rare and, in Italy, they live only in protected areas, a fact which increases the naturalistic value of these forests.
Both the underwood and the prairies are rich in flowers: there are 56 orchid species, the highest number in Europe and in the Mediterranean basin. Moreover, in the past the promontory formed a connection with the Balkan flora and fauna, as it is evident from the presence of the so-called "trans-adriatic" species.
The Foresta Umbra
This wood was once a part of the great forest growing on the Gargano promontory, but Foresta Umbra is still the most representative area of the Gargano hinterland. Despite of the devastations and the irresponsible cutting down of the trees carried out during the last three centuries, which led to the disappearance of the wood from hills and mountains, the Forest preserves his majesty and variety. The origin of the name is not clear: the number of explanations which have been given are all acceptable, but not sufficient to disclose it.
According to one of them, the name "Umbra" comes from "Umbri", an ancient population belonging to the Celtic branch, who used to live in the forest robbing and pillaging the shepherds; a more simple explanation argues that the name of the forest comes from its characteristic darkness (the Italian term "ombra" means "shadow"). |
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