THE FLORA

The Zingaro natural Reserve is situated at the extreme end of the western Sicilian coast. It is like a continuum of the calcareous Mesozoic reliefs of Palermo area, not far from the interesting Mount Cofano  which stands isolated at West, and it shows a very high diversity of habitat in which you can find phytocoenosis of great naturalistic and also environmental interest.
Important for the vegetation is the general climate, determined by an annual average temperature of 19 C° and by a rainfall of 645mm. Even if it does not rain, there often are beneficent fog banks on the mountains, coming from the sea and bringing humid local microclimates.

Beside common species of the Mediterranean area, the Reserve hosts particular elements of utmost interest. The coastal and sub-coastal cliffs and the internal reliefs host mostly endemic species.

The vegetable landscape is, in a vast part, dominated by grassland transient or perennial, the latter expressed by Cymbopogon Hirtus(Mediterranean barboncino) and by the Ampelodesmos Mauritanicus(‘disa). Aspects linked to the humid habitat extremely located in valley hollows, have a very important role for the permanent fauna.
Around the northern slopes of M. Passo del Lupo, among others, it is possible to see a beautiful wall of centuries-old plant of ivy-clad and where there are relicts of Holm-oak wood.
At the Western limit of the Reserve there also are fragments of Cork-plantation, interesting witness of that Cork forestall formation once widely extended and nowadays almost disappearing in the Western Sicily.