Flora

The flora of the Apuan Alps
 

hightlighted entities

Descriptive cards
of some important plants
(in italian)
 

Aquilegia bertolonii

Biscutella apuana

Campanula medium

Carex macrolepis

Carex macrostachys

Carum appuanum

Centaurea arachnoidea

Centaurea arrigoni

Cerastium apuanum

Globularia incanescens

Hypericum coris

Lomelosia graminifolia

Moltkia suffruticosa

Orchis pauciflora

Phyteuma scorzonerifolia

Polygala carueliana

Rhamnus glaucophylla

Rhinanthus apuanus

Salix crataegifolia

Santolina leucantha

Saxifraga lingulata

Scabiosa holosericea

Sesleria tenuifolia

Valeriana saxatilis

Veronica aphylla
 

The Park's Herbarium

Centaurea montis-borlae Soldano

The particular richness and diversity of the flora of the Apuan Alps are due to various factors such as geographical features, climate variability and the complex geological nature of the area that shows the alternation of limestone areas, generally arid, with little basic soil, and siliceous, waterproof, acid soil with the highest water content.

On the main slopes, exposed to the sea, the vegetation is Mediterranean: where the soil is calcareous, up to about 300 m above sea level is the Mediterranean sclerophyllous evergreen, composed by the holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) myrtle (Myrtus communis L.), terebinth (Pistacia terebinthus L.) and fillirea (phillirea latifolia L.); this vegetation has been replaced in large areas with olive groves; where the soil is acidic, up to about 600 m above sea level, we can see the pine forest of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Aiton).

Proceeding inward, with increasing altitude, you will encounter the oak-hornbeam and hornbeam-Cerreto, largely replaced by the man with vast chestnut; the oak-hornbeam are common in all limestone soils of the sunny Tyrrhenian side of the Apuan Alps from an altitude of 400 meters up to 1400 meters. The tree that dominates this kind of vegetation is the hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia Scop.), accompanied by the downy oak (Quercus pubescens Willd.) and the "orniello" (Fraxinus ornus L.).

In areas of oak-hornbeam, on rocks and in the debris, some endemic species of the Apuan Alps are frequent: the globularia (Globularia incanescens Viv.), Santolina (Santolina leucantha Bertol.), the asteroid supple salicin (Buphthalmum salicifolium L . subsp. flexile (Bertolt). Garbari), the molchia (Moltkia suffruticosa (L.) Brand), the Apuan chickweed (Cerastium apuanum Parl.), the Apuan willow (Salix crataegifolia Bertol.) and others.

The Cerreto-hornbeam is frequent mostly in fresh soils, especially in the valleys of Lunigiana and Garfagnana. It 's always present the "cerro" oak (Quercus cerris L.) together with hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia Scop.), The white hornbeam (Carpinus betulus L.), and the hazel (Corylus avellana L.).

Most of the deciduous forests in the past has been transformed into a chestnut coppice or fruit: the man has planted or encouraged the chestnut (Castanea sativa Miller) in all soils slightly acid suitable for the plant in order to extract chestnuts and wood; In fact, it is widely known the importance of the chestnut has played, especially in the past, in the life and economy of the apuan populations.
 
At higher altitudes we can found the "faggete", dominated by beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), with greater extension in the northern slopes of the Apuan Alps in Garfagnana and Lunigiana, from an altitude of 800-900 m up to 1600-1700 m. In the Tyrrhenian coast, especially where the geological substrate is made from marble, the beech woods have a lower extension, and are mostly comprised between 1200-1400 m a.s.l.
 
The vegetation of the altitude areas presents different aspects; on the higher parts of the siliceous peaks live the moors. They are found mostly in the central and northern Apuan and are mainly composed of two different species of blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L. gaultherioides and V. Bigelow).
The arid limestone peaks, seemingly devoid of vegetation, host several herbaceous species that actually live on the rocky walls; this is mostly not graminoids herbs, bushes and shrubs, which create a kind of discontinuous vegetation, called "vegetation casmofila"; this sparse vegetation largely characterizes the apuan vegetal landscape and develops over the marble peaks (part of the Monte Contrary, Monte Tambura, Monte Sella, part of Sumbra Monte, Monte Altissimo, Monte Corchia), grezzone peaks (Pizzo d'Uccello, Cresta Garnerone, Monte Grondilice Range of hooks, "Towers" of Mount Corchia), limestone and flint (Monte Sagro, part of the Monte Contrary, Zucchi Cardeto, part of the Monte Sumbra). In these environmental conditions numerous endemic species appear, such as the atamanta (Athamanta Cortiana Ferrarini) and the fluffy silene (Silene lanuginosa Bertol.).

Qui di lato sono disponibili le schede botaniche di alcune specie vegetali di interesse presenti nel comprensorio apuano

testi:             Maria Ansaldi, Emanuele Guazzi
iconografia:     Anne Maury