Natural elements

The sun warms lichen growing on the fallen rocks, carved out by the sea and populated with wild seeds from landscapes distant in space and time. Here nature has found harmonious solutions to distressed land forms, eroding them into a velvet green carpet that catches the eye before it lands on the sea. Bushes of mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), myrtle (Myrtus communis) and cade juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus), are shaped by the Mediterranean Sirocco winds, in shades of green that host modest fauna, while the intermittent screech of a cicadas keeps time: it is the heartbeat of a land in constantly growing, despite the actions of man.

Taking a step back

In prehistoric times a vast forest covered the majority of the Salento peninsula. Various human activities gradually modified local plant life over time, at a rhythm dictated largely by demographic growth.

In the 3rd century BCE, the Roman occupation brought about a collapse of agriculture due to the extermination of the Apulian people, signaling the beginning of a comeback for spontaneous vegetation and the reformation of wooded areas. In fact, according to Giuseppe Palmieri, “the long stay of armies in this region and the continued devastation, rendered the area empty of inhabitants.” (G. Palmieri, Pensieri economici relativi al Regno di Napoli, Naples, Editore Vincenzo Flauto, 1789).

In the 18th century, a law imposed taxes for the owners of wooded lands, causing them to seek to be rid of them, even by means of fire. An important contribution to the phytohistorical study of southern Italy is represented by the Geographic Atlas of the Kingdom of Naples by Antonio Rizzi Zannoni, based on geographical measurements most likely from 1798. This volume included maps that illustrate the majority of wooded areas from that period, including “the dense macchia of the Arneo,” located near the Giardini d’Acqua (G.A. Rizzi Zannoni, Atlante geografico del Regno di Napoli, Naples, Istituto Geografico Militare, 1808).

Five, six centuries ago in Apulia many wooded areas and forests were under the control of feudal lords, who claimed exclusive rights.To maintain such control, an armed force was created including foresters. It was the king (Kingdom of Naples) who named the master foresters and who listed all of the forests of the Kingdom with their respective number of custodians.

To defend the “Forest of Nardò,” once referred to as Nerito, where the Giardini d’Acqua are located, there was just a single forester assigned.

One thing leads to another: flora

"A tree: the slow explosion of a seed"

B. Munari

According to 20th century marine biologist Pietro Parenzan (who discovered the novel Iris revoluta Colas. on the tiny Mojuso island nearby) there over 130 species in the spunnulate protected from the dry winds and the attack of salt spray, mere meters below the surface. Even today, clinging to the “cuti” (rocky cliffs) beneath one’s feet, we can experience the “slow explosion of seeds” as Bruno Munari described trees. Lying in wait since spring, they distribute colorful plant life among the fissures of the coastline, where “algae and aquatic plants green as soft glass,” in the words of the Parenzan, fill these grand limestone vases.

The predominance of holm oaks (Quercus ilex), know locally as the leccio (hence, the toponym Lecce), protected inside the sinkholes from the salt-laced winds beyond, supports the hypothesis that the site was previously a leccio forest, disturbed over time by the presence of man and by wildfires.

In 1978 the local flora the spunnulate of Torre Castiglione, was classified by Giovanni Caniglia in the Carta della vegetazione di Torre Colimena, as “vegetation of a saline wetland (paludi salse).”

Flora idronte

The humid micro climate created inside the spunnulate favors, in particular, the development of vegetation that is totally different from that of the nearby terrain, often completely bare, functioning like islands of wild flora in a “sea” of land eroded over time by cultivation and the grazing of livestock. Therefore, it is not difficult to find singular vegetative associations and relicts of flora in these karstic formations or close nearby. This is due to the peculiar micro climate created inside the spunnulate, protected from the sea winds laden with salt, fed by humidity and spring water, and, most of all, not affected by the intense grazing activities or the damaging interference of human activity over past centuries.

In the largest sinkholes, with ponds visible at the bottom, there are distinct zones of plant life that can be elaborated:

A-G

Along the upper edges of the spunnulate we find: branched asphodel (Asphodelus ramosus), sea squill (Urginea maritima) and numerous grass plants.

B-C-D-E

Along the walls and terraces: bird’s foot (Lotus commutatus), Clematis cirrhosa, flax-leaved daphne (Daphne gnidium), myrtle (Myrtus communis), mock privet (Phillyrea latifolia), mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), holm oak (Quercus ilex), and other elements of the Quercion ilicis ecosystem, common smilax (Smilax aspera), caper bush (Capparis spinosa), and navelwort (Cotyledon umbicus veneris);

F

Along the bottom: grasses like spiral ditchgrass (Ruppia cirrhosa), Potamogeton pectinatus, and occasional tufts of softstem bulrush (Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani).

Underwater: common reed (Phragmites australis), sea rush (Juncus maritimus), spiny rush (Juncus acutus), black bog-rush (Schoenus nigricans), sea lavender (Limonium serotinum), golden samphire (Inula crithmoides), sea aster (Aster tripolium).

“Banal” Flora: A phrase coined by local author Michele Mainardi, these are species introduced by man due to improper use of the spunnulate, therefore disrupting previously existing vegetation. These include annual mercury (Mercurialis annua), herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum), longstalk cranesbill (Geranium columbinum), dovesfoot geranium (Geranium molle), sourgrass (Oxalis pes caprae) ,common stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium), petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus), common mallow (Malva sylvestris), and many others.

Garrigue, or surface flora: The area around the spunnulate has suffered extreme degradation; millennia of anthropic activity, grazing of livestock, fires, and agriculture have modified the vegetation over time. At present the plant life that dominates the areas surrounding the sinkholes is made up of geophytes, plants that form bulbs and disappear during periods of unfavorable meteorological conditions, their underground organs in a state of dormancy. There are also numerous thorny plants, whose spines take the place of leaves, reducing transpiration and the need for water. Many common examples of these two types of plants are myrtle (Myrthus communis), barbary nut (Iris sisyrinchium sisyrinchium), Apulian satureja (Satureya cuneifolia), alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria), wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Montpellier rockrose (Cistus monspeliensis), three-horned stock (Matthiola tricuspidata), coastal medick (Medicago marina), broom (Calicotome infesta), pink butterfly orchid (Anacamptis papilionacea), bumblebee orchid (Ophrys bombyliflora), yellow bee-orchid (Ophrys lutea), sawfly orchid (Ophrys tenthredinifera), Bertoloni’s bee orchid (Ophrys bertolonii), several species of ornitholgalum, cade juniper (Juniperus macrocarpa), and Silene colorata.

Botanical sheets

One thing leads to another: fauna

"Both simple forms, like drops of water, and complicated ones, like praying mantis, are built according to the laws of economic design."

B. Munari

In the summer, the Giardini d’Acqua are enveloped by a constellation of sounds, from the fluttering of little bittern wings, to the subtle murmur of mastic leaves brushed up against by slithering ratsnake and the chirping of crickets and cicadas, while the sea acts as the orchestra conductor.

When the sun is high, warming rocky ravines and timid geckos, the tepid air becomes heavy, capturing echoes of hidden life.

Then, at night the cicada song abates into silence on an endlessness of the horizon, with jagged shadows painted by the full moon around ancient boulders and the scampering of crabs inside small pools of water and salt.

In antique maps up until the beginning of the 19th century the greater Terra d’Arneo was referred to as “the dense macchia of Arneo,” a maquis shrubland populated by wild boar, deer, fox, hares and aquatic animals. The doctor and author Girolamo Marciano (1571-1628) in his 16th century encyclopedic tome, “Description, Origin and Successes of the Province of Otranto,” affirmed that near Torre di Castiglione there was already:

"little soil...many abysses, grottoes and natural openings full of rocks and salt water, with the most flavorful fish and eels."

Airborne Fauna

The fauna of the spunnulate are particularly interesting during the spring and autumn migration periods, especially from mid-March until the end of May.

The most representative avifauna of the coastline includes the common kingfisher, mallard ducks, black-winged stilts, and little turns. Along the rocky coastlines, and among the wellsprings in the sinkholes, it is possible to observe gray heron, purple heron, little egret, black-crowned night heron, great and little bittern, as well as squacco heron.

Occasionally visitors include Eurasian stone-curlew, collared pratincole, common rock thrush, hoopoes and common cuckoos, who stop here looking to rest and feed before continuing their journeys elsewhere.

This rich array of fauna makes the spunnulate of Torre Castiglione even more strategic for bird-watching than other well-known areas like Messina, Gibilterra and the Dardanelli. It is also interesting to note towards the end of the spring the migration of the painted lady, while, around the end of the summer and the beginning of autumn the red admiral and small tortoiseshell arrive in Salento, respectively.

These butterflies, while a common sight, are difficult to capture in still images, as they flee at the slightest movement.

Fauna profiles

SEA FAUNA

The seabed of the Torre Castiglione sinkholes is home to sea fauna such as mullet (Mugilcephalus), western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) and eels (Anguilla anguilla), evidence of their past connection with the greater sea.

The mosquito fish, however, were introduced in the past to combat malaria. Because of the extreme isolation created by these peculiar habitats, there are also ancient, rare, and sometimes unique cave dwelling inhabitants, including invertebrates like Spelaemysis bottazzii, endemic to Apulia, Metaingolfiella and Diamisi camassai (endemic specifically to the sinkholes of Torre Castiglione).

These species are representative of paleo-mediterranean life, which colonized the subterranean waters in Apulia nearly 160 million years ago.

LAND FAUNA

Mammals have been documented along the edges of the sinkholes and on nearby roads, including numerous red fox (Vulpes vulpes), least weasels (Mustela nivalis), beech martens (Martes foina), and hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus), who leave their dens during the dusk and nocturnal hours in the search of food. Here these mammals tend to abandon their places of refuge during the summer months due to the intensification of human activity.

In terms of reptiles and amphibians, the spunnulate have a significant variety despite the modest area they cover. Among the reptiles present are European pond turtles (Emys orbicularis), four-lined snakes (Elaphe quatuorlineata) and European ratsnakes (Elaphe situla).