Pizza, Pasta, and Plants – Botanizing in Italy and Corsica (Part 10)

Wednesday, September 9 – Corsican Wrap-up

Today is our final day in Corsica, so we arose early to retrace our steps back from the Southwest part of the island to the Northeast ferry port. Yesterday, we noticed some greener areas toward the higher peaks, so this would be our focus for the day.

Our first stop of the day at 2900’ was amazing, where we found a moist vertical cliff. This area contained at least five different ferns, along with flowering plants of the Gentiana asclepiadea that we’d seen in the Apuan Alps, complete with a single ripe capsule of seed. Commercial material of this species is most likely from colder regions, which is why it’s performed so poorly for us in the past. This was also our first sighting of the rare perennial Cymbalaria hepaticifolia, but sadly, it was too late to add this to our phyto list. The columbine, Aquilegia sp. had beautiful silver markings. The oddest thing at this site was a dense, groundcover iris-looking plant, that didn’t seem to match anything known from the island.  Spores were gathered here of many of the same ferns we found in Italy, to compare their performance in cultivation.

Our next stop was slightly lower in elevation, at a parking lot for Col de Vizzavona hikers, where we marveled at the diversity of the leaf shapes of the English holly, Ilex aquifolium. This is a plant which typically doesn’t thrive in heat, but I’m betting these genetics would thrive. Unfortunately, seed were still months away from being ripe. The European beech, Fagus sylvatica here, should also have good heat tolerance. This site also provided some of the most incredible populations of flowering Cyclamen hederifolium that we’d seen on the trip.  Nearby, a splendid specimen of the fern, Polypodium cambricum, glowed on a bank along the highway.

Our next stop was at 2750’ elevation, when Zac spotted the native Cercis siliquastrum in full seed.  Adjacent was also more Acer pseudoplatanus in seed, like we’d seen in Italy, so it will be interesting to see how this form thrives in the heat and humidity of North Carolina. On the adjacent bank was our first sighting of Colchicums in flower on Corsica. We’re unsure of the species, but this seems to be Colchicum nanum. Below it on the bank was a lovely dwarf Lathyrus species, with very narrow foliage and hot pink flowers.

Our final stop for the day was to actually take a photo of the red blinking deer signs along the highway, which obviously signaled that Rudolph was on his way, sleigh in tow.  What initially looked like an uninteresting bank, turned out to be a botanical treasure trove of dryland plants. Here, we found flowering plants of Bupleurum fruticosum, which was on Zac’s desiderata list.  Sadly, there were no ripe seeds. We also found our first plants of Arbutus unedo with ripe fruit, which typically doesn’t happen until late fall and winter. On a very steep bank, were several clumps of an amazing oregano, Origanum sp., that had just finished flowering, all with amazingly dark purple foliage.  Sadly, it was too late to add these to our phytosanitary certificate.  Same was the case with the large clump of Asparagus at the top of the bank and lovely, perennial Eryngium campestre, that Zac spotted near the bottom.

We cut the day a bit shorter than normal, as we both needed to work on our final paperwork and seed cleaning before tomorrow’s plant inspections, back in Pisa.  After returning to the SUD hotel, we got busy with our final cleaning and paperwork. Once we were finished, we made our way down to the coast, and while watching our ferry arrive into port, spotted amazing patches of the edible rock samphire, Crithmum maritimum. Surprisingly, this Mediterranean native thrives for us at JLBG.

After spending an hour trying to find a new dinner stop for the evening, only to find dozens of closed restaurants, we relented and returned to the Sud Hotel restaurant to rejoin our furry meal companion, and say our goodbyes to Corsica.

Final part coming tomorrow!