Flora and fauna from Italy

To know the examples of Flora and Fauna of Italy, we must first understand the characteristics of these Italian plants and animals.

• Country with more biodiversity in Europe: Its territory, which covers only 1/30 from the entire continent, houses 30% of animal species and 40% vegetables that exist in Europe⁽¹⁾. Despite this, we have to consider the history of the country to understand the current state and the characteristics of its biodiversity.
• Eclipsed by human activity: The strong historical legacy that this country has from the Roman Empire, to the Church and the cradle of several cultural movements such as Renaissance have made strong human activity physically diminish the Italian flora and fauna.
• Imported and exported species: Following the intense human development, empires, cities and a high level of development were created that swept the native biodiversity of Italy. You have to remember that it was also a Important Trade Center Being on important maritime routes, which had an impact on the state of biodiversity by selling and buying species. Today it is easy to note that areas with less human and more aggressive activity have a higher level of conservation.
• Variety of climates: As for the geographical position, Italy extends from the Italian Alps with cold and snowy climates, to the warm Mediterranean. Between these two points where Italy extends there is a plurality of climates, with a varied biodiversity between both points with tempered forests, thickets and subdictic archipelagos. Discover more about the temperate forest: characteristics, flora and fauna and the bushes: what are, types and fauna in these other ecology articles that we recommend.
• Volcanoes and mountain chains: Among geographical peculiarities, volcanoes and mountains stand out, called Apenninos.
• Hydrographic basins: There are few and those that exist are grouped in the Po Valley. In addition, it has belonging on the mainland and in small but multiple islands on the Mediterranean Sea, Adriatic and Ionic Sea. These types of habitats are associated with their plants and animals, distributed mainly in forests.

Following all this, the following characteristics can be attributed to the Italian flora and fauna as a summary:

• Rich and diverse.
• With more variety than most Europe.
• Highly modified.
• With non -native and introduced species.
• Decreased by human activity.
• Preserved in smaller sites.
• Varied, in response to different climates.
• Terrestrial and aquatic.

The richness of the Italian flora is In third place in Europe. The Italian flora can be divided into maquis, which are fields with weeds, conifers and broad blade vegetation. Here are some of the most iconic species in Italy.

Madroño (Arbutus Unedo)

The Corbezzolo tree gives Red fruits and white petal flowersthat when playing with the green of the leaves they remember the Italian flag. For this reason it is the national tree of the country, in addition to that it is an endemic plant of the Mediterranean. Figure from Greek mythology, inherited by the Romans later.

Olive (Olea Europea)

Olive oil production is a great tradition of accumulated years within Italy, inherited from the Egyptians. The Greeks brought improved species from Egypt, although in their region there were already. Thus they came to form to the olive crops that we know today. Being one of the first crops, there is a deep investigation around its origin. Today Italy is Of the first producers together with Spain.

Discover when an olive tree can be pruned and how to do it in this post that we recommend.

Among all the fauna of Italy, we can highlight the following species of animals that inhabit the country.

Italic wolf (Canis lupus italicus)

The wolves are part of the mythology about the origin of Italy, where the Luperna wolf muddered the founders of Rome: Romulo and Remo. The italic wolf is a wolf subspecies that arrives from Italy to France. Are in danger of extinction But thanks to government efforts they are recovering.

Perhaps these other two posts may also be interested in why the Mexican gray wolf is in danger of extinction or why the Iberian wolf is in danger of extinction.

Pardo de los Apenninos (Ursus arctos marsicanus)

It is a subspecies of the mountain range of the Apennines. It is found critically threatened to disappearmainly because of poaching and sports.

Do not hesitate to take a look at this article on how to avoid poaching of animals.

Rayado Dolphin (STETELLA COERUEROALBA)

This dolphin is very common in Mediterranean waters. They are small, approximately two meters long. His belly is white or pink and has two dark blue stripes on its sides. They are usually spotted in groups of 15 individuals.

Maybe you may be interested in knowing how dolphins communicate.

Suede (RUPICAPRA RUPICAPRA)

Suede is a bovid from which the suede is obtained for the manufacture of shoes and clothing. Inhabits the Alps, a section that divides Italy of France. This habitat is snowy and have hooves with which they can climb up.

Real eagle (Aquila Chrysaetos)

The eagle was the highest badge of the Roman army, and was represented with open wings. It was chosen by the role of a predator in nature, and that symbolizes strength, power and victory. It is a dam that hunted With his powerful vision from heaven, hunting good size mammals. In Europe their communities and the Italian Alps have greatly diminished are one of the few areas where you can still notify.

Do not hesitate to read why the real eagle is in danger of extinction in this article of Ecology Verde.

If you want to read more articles similar to Flora and fauna from Italywe recommend that you enter our biodiversity category.