Foto Corsica, Nature

Spring, 2010

Corsica is an island of 8.6 sq.km in Mediterranean Sea. Politically it is a part of France, but geographically it is closer or Italy. There are 260 th. Corsicans living on island. They speak Corsicans.

The forest occupies middle of the island.

As a result of Mediterranean climate, with dry summers, a lot of forest suffers from fires.

Some mountains tops are over 2500 m.

The roads in Corsica can be very narrow, especially in mountain area.

Maquis –represent the wild natural collection of Mediterranean bushes and flowers, and covers an area of 2 th.sq.km. The best time to experience it, is in spring, when bushes are in blosom and it brings wonderful, full and rich aroma all over Corsica.

Corsica is a paradise for botanists with 3000 plants species, of which 80 are endemic.

My natural knowledge is not enough to name every plant I saw on Corsica :).

A strawberry tree. The fruits are not edible.

Avocado tree. Before seeing this, I thought it is a vegetable. Did you also?

Wild lavender.

A cat is sleeping in a basket in the Botanical Garden.

Wild sage.

Maquis is packed with wild aromatic plants. In the excellent Botanical Garden, we had a closer look of these plants. And a closer smell test.

Another wonderfully made sight – turtle park, with a collection from all over the world, with moree 170 species. It is unique even for Europe.

Some of unusual turtles.

Pig. In Corsica domesticated pig is hanging around freely, mostly in forest, but also on the roads. Many Corsicans have a part of forest in their property, where they grow pigs. Due to their liberty to move and natural diet, Corsicanian pork is especially tasty. Pigs do have sheds, build by people. They come there for the night of to give birth. (I think)

One dinosaurs. In stone.

Cork tree. A sort of oak.

Transporting the cork harvest.