South Apennine mixed montane forests
RESOLVE 802
The South Apennine mixed montane forests occupy the high mountain massifs of southern Italy, spanning the regions of Basilicata, Calabria, and Campania along with the island of Sicily. Vegetation is sharply zoned by elevation: lower slopes carry sclerophyllous evergreen holm oak and cork oak alongside deciduous species, mid-elevations are dominated by mixed deciduous forests of Turkey oak, downy oak, and sweet chestnut, and the highest slopes hold European black pine, silver fir, and European beech. The climate is Mediterranean but strongly altitudinal, ranging from warm, sub-humid lower elevations (about 14 to 17 degrees Celsius average) to cold, per-humid highlands (about 9 to 13 degrees Celsius) with rigorous winters and abundant snowfall. The ecoregion is a Mediterranean plant-diversity hotspot, with thousands of vascular species and hundreds of endemics, including the critically threatened Nebrodi fir (Abies nebrodensis), the Sicilian oak (Quercus gussonei), and the Etna birch (Betula aetnensis); roughly 46 percent of its area lies within protected parks such as Pollino, Sila, and Aspromonte. The Sicilian shrew serves as its flagship species.
About the mediterranean forests, woodlands & scrub biome
Regions of hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters supporting drought-adapted shrublands — chaparral, maquis, fynbos — and open woodlands. Fire is a natural shaping force, and these climates hold extraordinary plant diversity and endemism.
Collections for this ecoregion
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.