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This Regional Nature Reserve includes the last well-preserved strips of cork forest, of fundamental importance from a biogeographical point of view, due to its rarity in the entire Adriatic side of Italy. The undergrowth is well developed and made of several species typical of the Mediterranean area, which cannot be found in any other places in Salento.

Bosco di Santa Teresa, just outside the town of Tuturano, covers about 62 acres; its territory was included in the fief of Valerano, donated in 1107 to the Benedictines Friars of Brindisi, who had already been the owners of Tuturano since 1097.

Bosco dei Lucci, towards Mesagne, is a wooded strip that covers about 20 acres, consisting of cork trees and thick Mediterranean scrub. In the past, it developed over a larger area and some botanical studies report that it was already quite huge the 1700s; in the 1980s, some trees had reached the height of more than 23 ft.

Colemi Park is currently used as a public recreational facility and is also open to motorized traffic – the latter has, unfortunately, dramatically damaged its vegetation.

Bosco Preti, a small nucleus of only about 5 acres of pure cork oaks, is what remains of a much larger ancient area; in fact, a 1995 study reported that the forest used to be some 40-acre wide.

All those woods, growing within an agricultural territory, are acknowledged as one of the few remaining havens for several animal species. The whole area has, therefore, been included in the list of Sites of Community Importance (SIC).

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)