LIFE IN THE NATURE

Friday 9th we went to the Royal Wood of Portici, a historic residence built by King Charles of Bourbon as a royal palace, equipped with an amphitheater and an English garden and where geometric elements don’t define and circumscribe the space: all is based on natural elements.

Within the park there are numerous species of plants both exotic and typical of the Mediterranean scrub, that we have learned to recognize.

The plant that has most struck me is the Bougainvillea spectabilis, an evergreen climber native to Brazil, which takes its name from the French navigator and explorer Louis-Antoine Count of Bougainville: the peculiarity of this plant is that what look like the petals of the flower are actually modified and colored leaves called bracts.

Another interesting plant we have seen was the Myrtle

(its botanical name is Myrtus communis), a plant  native to the Mediterranean basin with white flowers with numerous stamens and fragrant leaves. It is rich in essential oils from which a highly appreciated liqueur is produced, especially in Sardinia.

Monday 12th we visited the Royal Botanical Garden in Naples, one of the most important and oldest in Italy, which presents several collections of rare exotic plants such as the Cycadaceae. Here we have admired the Zelkova carpinifolia, a majestic tree over 40 meters high native to Caucasus and the Araucaria bidwillii, a conifer potentially dangerous due to the fall of its heavy and huge pine cones, the Rhus toxicodendron, known as poison ivy because if touched it can cause severe dermatitis, the rare fossil fern Woodwardia radicans, the gigantic bamboos of the genus Mosa that can grow up to 50cm in one day and many species of Cactus typical of Mexican deserts.