Sardinia & Corsica

The ‘lost world’ of the Giara di Gesturi is a landscape as unexpected as it is strangely beautiful. Outcrops of pinky-black basalt and prehistoric ‘nuraghi’ emerge from marshy meadows and dwarf Cork Oak woodlands on plateaux two thousand feet above sea level.

As a chorus of trills from Tyrrhenean Tree Frogs rises from pools we’ll enjoy lovely Crocus minimus and pink-purple Romulea revelieri amongst several orchids. Newly described Ophrys ortuabis blooms with yellow Anemones under the shadow of six-thousand feet high Monti del Gennargentu. We’ll visit a wood full of the endemic Paeonia morisii, a startling sight. Lower down the beguiling landscapes that lie between our ideally placed hotel and the Fluminese are rich in orchids. One of Europe’s most beautiful orchids, Orchis longicornu is rather common, and mixes with Pink Butterfly Orchid and the endemic Orchis ichnusae. The lovely Mirror Orchid is a frequent sight and amongst a host of commoner Bee Orchids we’ll see plenty of the island’s specialities of which there are quite a number! Ophrys eleonorae has lips of glowing blue and purple, endemic Ophrys chestermannii large velvety square flowers, and oval-lipped flowers of grey, purple and pink belong to exquisite Ophrys morisii.

The little green orchid Gennaria diphylla joins several species of Romulea, Bellardia and Barbary Nuts in one of Europe’s pre-eminent wetlands, the little-known Sinis. Corsican Swallowtails fly amongst dunes by lagoons that are home to birds such as Audouin’s Gulls. Even as we land at Cagliari’s airport we’ll see flocks of Greater Flamingoes on lagoons next to the runway – Sardinia’s that sort of place!

For the second part of this tour we’ll move to scenically stunning Corsica which has long held an interest to naturalists, there are many elegantly penned articles from a bygone era with prose redolent of aromatic maquis and dramatic gorges.

Brick pink granitic cliffs sweep down to the sea west of Ajaccio, where yellow Calicotome villosa dominates maquis that has a rich flora including Convolvulus sicula and Succowia balearica. Southern coastal limestone is home to beautiful Erodium corsicum, endemic Morisia monanthos, and fine hummocks of Astragalus massiliensis. Orchids include Orchis laxiflora and bee orchids such as Ophrys morisii, Ophrys marmorata and Ophrys lutea corsica. Corsican Dappled White and the Corsican Swallowtail are on the wing as we stop by roadsides dotted with Green-winged and Pink Butterfly Orchids.

Cytinus hypocistus’s yellow flowers glow from crimson bracts amongst Cistus, and in meadows there are displays of Serapias hardly matched elsewhere in the Mediterranean with large-flowered Serapias cordigera and Serapias neglecta and the common Serapias lingua. In the mountainous interior extensive Corsican Pine forests are home to the endemic Corsican Nuthatch, and a second endemic bird, Corsican Finch, is rather common, especially amid Sweet Chestnut woods. Endemics continue with the rare Tyrrhenian Tree Frog, European Leaf-toed Gecko, and Pygmy Algyroides.

In the south Kerry Lily blooms, and the broomrapes Orobanche rigens and Orobanche sanguinea are both beautiful richly-coloured species. Narcissus tazetta and Romulea requienii decorate rocky crevices and shorelines have much Matthiola tricuspidata, Medicago marina, and purple-streaked Silene sericea. Moving inland we’ll find Brimeura fastigata and Pancratium illyricum, which unlike its more widespread European cousin flowers far up into the mountains. Cyclamen repandum blooms at all altitudes, with Corydalis pumila at higher passes amid a selection of gageas, and slopes covered with pretty lilac Crocus corsicus, the outside of the flowers etched with deep purple lines. Fabulous mounds of Saxifraga cervicornis adorn shaded rocks in a narrow gorge where Armeria leucocephala, Saxifraga corsica, Arenaria balearica, and Orchis olbiensis bloom. On the east coast we will see the endangered Anchusa crispa at one of its remaining sites. Our hotel in the Gorges du Restonica sits beside the cascading river, Helleborus argutifolius flowering abundantly nearby.