October 2014

The island of Elba is the largest of the seven main islands that makes up the Tuscan Archipelago. For its size it has an amazing large flora of nearly 1300 taxa. Most of this can be attributed to its capricious terrain. It is a flora that has been greatly influenced by the activities of man. Only the craggiest peaks, and steepest slopes seem to have escaped the heards of goats, the lumberjack’s ax or the miner’s pick.

I learned on this trip, from the botanist Angelino Carta of the Orto Botanica da Pisa, that human intervention might actually have increased biodiversity on the island. He rues the return of the primeval oak forests, which he said are low in biodiversity. Certainly there are many plants of questionable provenance, what botanists like to call archaeophytes, plants introduce so far back in history that they seem native but probably are not. But there are also many natives, some of those even endemic to the islands, which were at one time part of a continuous stretch of land all they way to Corsica.

Certainly September is not the best time to go looking for wildflowers. Yet, though most plants were setting seed or fruit, there were still plenty of flowers to see. Both the last of summer’s and the first of spring’s. Yes, I said spring. The cooling temperatures of fall and the return of the rains actually initiate a second spring on the island. Naturalist Gianfranco Barsotti calls Elba “l’isola dell’eterna primavera”, the island of eternal spring just for this perpetual cycle of blooms.

Daphne gnidium was blooming and producing fruit.

 The native elm-leafed blackberries ( Rubus ulmifolius) were starting to ripen.

Scolymus hispanicus,  a thistle relative, renders a rich honey prized by bee keepers on the island.

The ancient chestnut forest of the island are home to many shade loving plants, though diversity is much reduced here there are still treasures to be found.

Wild cyclamen ( Cyclamen hederifolium) thrives in these sandy humus-rich soils, though they can also be found in some very poor soils in full sun.

After centuries of neglect this old hermitage becomes veritable rock garden, every nook and cranny sprouting. I wonder which god or goddess is being worshiped here now.

Though most of the ferns are found in the forests, you can also find them like this circumboreal species Asplenium trichomanes tucked under a rock, any bit of shade even in very exposed settings.

The first bulbs of spring are often the fall blooming bulbs. Scilla autumnalis  was blooming in great numbers throughout the island.

The fall blooming Narcissus serotinus,  literally late narcissus, implies that this is not a precocious spring flower, but rather a laggard, waiting all the way to fall to begin blooming.

Arisarum vulgare, a very pale form of monk’s-cowl, comes out of it dormancy in the pseudo-spring of September.

This is probably one of the last Spiranthes aestivalis to be blooming for the year. I was lucky to see this rarity , which is one of the 47 native orchids growing on Elba. The Hawaiian Islands only have 3 native species of orchid.

The Italians call  Bellis sylvestris, this little daisy, pratolino autunale, simply: little field flower of fall. It is a close relative to the Northwest weed we call English daisy (Bellis perennis) but larger in all parts, and equally as charming.

The rosemaries begin blooming this time of year too. I spent one whole hike over Monte Serra turning my hand lens toward the rosemary flowers, such a diversity of forms and colors. This beautiful white one had just a breath of violet lying across its petals.

I did not see everything I wanted to see, though I did stumble into a planting of Doug firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Our northwest native was part of a reforestation project back in the 50s. It was planted to enrich the chestnut forest with a fast growing conifer. It has naturalizedon the island. Is this part of the biodiversity? Or a problem? I the issues are very different than what we face with our humongous virgin forests on the west coast of North America.

According to the tourist bureau of the community of Fetovaia, Elba is the greenest island of the Mediterranean. I must agree it is a very green island, whether it is the greenest I don’t know. What I do know is I will visit again. I still haven’t seen the endemic Genista desoleana (in the middle of the photo) in bloom, or anywhere near 47 orchids.

Elba is not a large island, 86. 49 sq. mi. according to google, yet is the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia. Like Pisa it has a single claim to fame: Napoleon. Napoleon’s exile on the island lasted a mere 100 days but his name has lasted much longer. I must admit after many years of visiting the island this last trip was the first time I visited Napoleon’s villa, and I was sorely disappointed.

I come to Elba for the nature. Sure, I know there is plenty of nature here in Washington. Sometimes too much and I have to get out the weed-whacker, but I have a certain affection for the flora of the Mediterranean, and Elba is a good place to see some of it at least.

In some ways Elba is a walled garden. The steep rocky bluffs of the island limit access to only a few ports and it has been inhabited for millennia, so has been greatly affected by humans. Some accounts place Neolithic humans as the first inhabitants. Certainly Iron Age man was there and iron is a lot of what Elba was about. The Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, the Pisans, and everyone else who rested control of Elba was after it’s rich iron deposits. That and the gem stones that also abound there.

Mining is gone from the island now, and tourism is the source of income for the 30,000 inhabitants, either directly or indirectly. The ravaged landscapes that mining left on the eastern end of the island are being used to generate solar energy.

The Parco Nacionale Arcipelago Toscana has over the passed few decades claimed nearly 30,000 acres of land making it one of the largest in Italy. The old medieval footpaths now host hikers from all over Europe, and a few Americans. It is this stunningly variable land, which attracts me. Rocky peaks and swampy valleys, darkly shaded and forested valleys and raw sun baked coastlines make for a diversity of plants and animals.

This was the first time in my over ten visits to the island that I had a car. It opened up the west end of the island to me with the rugged peak of Monte Capanne and the old chestnut forests. At it’s center. A hike across the Filicaie le Calanche was breathing taking, both in the rigor it took to scramble up there as well as the beautiful views. There I also saw the remnant populations of yew (Taxus baccata) and holly (Ilex aquifolium) left from the last ice age.

I didn’t spend my whole time on the peaks though. It was still summer in some ways. I often ended a day of hiking with a quick dip in one of the island’s many beaches. Spiaggia San Andrea was still buzzing with swimmers when I visited it.

But on my last day on the island, my favorite beach at Nisportino was nearly abandoned. And summer felt decidedly over as did my trip.