Flora and fauna

Plants and herbs

The vegetable cover on the island of Silba is mainly consisted of unique mediteranian flora, which varies from scraper to very compact and dense Mediteranian oak (also known as Evergreen oak - lat. Quercus ilex) woods. Furthermore, on Silba you can find about fifty small Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) groves.

Silba scraper is usually made of Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), Myrte (Myrtus communis), Prickly juniper (Junuperus oxycedrus), Spanish broom (Spartum junecum) and many other types of this unique mediteranian vegetable cover. The vegetable cover also includes famous mediteranean fruit cultures as well as numerous curative, aromatic, flavour and decorative mediteranean plants.

As far as fruit cultures are concerned, the most widely known are certainly olives (Olea europea), fig-trees and almonds. The less represented sorts are vine, pomegranate, lemon and mandarine.

If you are more interested in curative and aromatic vegetables, you should know that the most common sorts are Lady's Orchid (Hypericum perforatum), Shop-sage (Salvia officinalis), Iceland Moss (Cetraria islandica), Calendula (Calendula officinalis), Calamint (Mentha piperita), Lavander (Lavandula officinalis), Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Strawflowers (Helichrysum italicum), Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Rue (Ruta graveolens) and many more...

Aromatic plants are most commomly Marjoram (Origanum vulgaris), Sweet bay tree (Laurus nobilis), Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare).

The most common decorative plants are Common Cyclamen (Cyclamen repandum), Spanish bayonet (Jucca aloifolia), Stewartia malacodendron (Sternbergia lutea), Australian Laurel (Pittosporum tobira), Laurel cherry (Prunus laurocerarus), Tamarix (Tamarix parviflora), Oleander (Nerium oleander), Algerian Ivy (Hedera canariensis) and so on...