NAT-LAB - Portoferraio / Room 3

This room represents a cross section of the land environment where you can find all the animals that live both on and below the ground, which means almost all the natural trophic levels in the food chain. You go from the grazers like grasshoppers and crickets to predatory animals and to detritivores.

There are also two "Dioramas" showing two natural scenes that can still be seen in real life on the Island of Elba. The one to your left shows a cork tree branch with a couple of "Oak beetles" walking along it as well as a Stag beetle (Lucanus tetraodon) in flight. The Diorama to the right portrays a typical dune setting where a predatory animal, the Scarites buparius, a beetle, is about to devour its favourite prey, a Pimelia.

In the corner on the left you can see an ecological succession of animals that are typically found on most of the Islands of the Tuscan Archipelago.

The detailed descriptions of all the species to be found in this room can also be found in digital form both on the tablet and in the app  that are there for the public to use and consult.

The ecological succession from the dunes to the mountains

If we start with the biggest island in the Tuscan Archipelago and go along the different environments one after the other that go from the beach to the mountains you can come across many different species of plants, some of which are very unusual for such a small, Mediterranean island. Today you can often see the colourful Hottentot fig trees (Carpobrotus acinaciformis) growing in the dune areas near the beaches, and they have become as rare as they are important for the coastal ecosystems, or some very unique species like the sea fennel (Crithmum maritimum), the silver ragwort (Senecio cineraria) and the European houseleek (Anthyllis barba-jovis). On the steep cliffs on the other hand we can see: the phoenician juniper (Juniperus phoenicea) and the red juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus). Among the scrubland we can see rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), rock rose (Cistus monspeliensis, incanus and salvifolius, helichrysum (Helicrysum italicum), lavender (Lavandula stoechas and viscous inula (Inula viscosa, all very typical of sunny, dry areas on the island.

Where the greenery is taller, but that is also slowly becoming rarer and scarcer, it is classed as the Mediterranean bush that is so typical of the Mare Nostrum, although fortunately many of the evironments in Elba as yet are still rich in lush Mediterranean bush.

If we go inland and follow any of the roads and paths up the mountains we can find some species that are not very common for a Mediterranean archipelago like the black hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia) as well as several Alpine and Appenine species like the yew (Taxus baccata) and holly (Ilex aquifolium). Along the ditches we find the black alder (Alnus glutinosa) that grows as far down as the cane thickets (Arundo donax). We can also find many orange lilies (Lilium bulbiferum croceum) and fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium. Chestnut trees (Castanea sativa) are also very common but they tend to grow more on the western and more shady parts of the island, and you can often come across some that are extremely large because they are centuries old.