Gorges Rocks and Screes

Gorges are the most extraordinary environment in the Park. Some of them go in the heart of Majella for dozens of kilometres like the “Mucchia of Caramanico Terme”, while others present very high vertical faces like the “Selva Romana” Valley, where the sunlight can barely penetrate.

It deals with a very peculiar environment, the rocks of which host vegetable species endowed with selective adaptations such as the hanging bearing, visible in certain species like the Neapolitan campanula or the cinquefoil (Potentilla Caulescens), or the ability to remove carbonate salts in the substratum like the saxifrages do.

The rocky faces of gorges also host various species of birds such as the stained nuthatch woodpecker and nests of mountain swallows.
The gorge faces, especially the sunny ones, are the favourite places for the nest building by birds of prey such as Lanner, priority species according to EU Directive 409/79. Moreover, there are other nesting species with a remarkable naturalistic value: the sea Crow, the alpine Chough, the peregrine Hawk and the golden Eagle.

Greek Partridge lives on rocks with small pastureland: it is a galliform decreasing in all over the European area and an important prey for several birds and carnivorous mammals.

Screes are made of crushed stones in continuous movement: they are another selective environment where grow species able to stand up to the lack of ground and the high dynamism of these zones. The species living there are called “pioniere” (Pioneer) as they colonize these hostile surroundings first, paving the way for other species like the Drypis spinosa, a “screes migrator” endowed with long creeping stolons able to root even if the crushed stones are in continuous movement.

The selection doesn’t occur only towards vegetable species but also in the animal community living there. The crushed stones are refuge especially for reptiles, from the Wall-Lizard to the unusual Riccioli Coluber, while vegetable species like the Dripide and red Valerian are very good nectariferous for various lepidopters such as the Parnassius Apollo Butterfly (Mountain Apollo), hymenopters like bumble-bees, bees and other insects.