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The beaches of Palinuro, surrounded by the rocky cliffs by the same name, are located around Capo Palinuro, province of Salerno. These uncontaminated bays of light sand and with a crystal-clear sea are possible to reach only by sea. They are often visited by tourists which dock the boats in the vicinities to benefit from these landscapes. The most famous are Porto di Palinuro Beach, Buon Dormire Beach, Marinella Beach, Arco Naturale Beach and Saline Beach.

The rare Primula palinuri grows on the cliffs’ rocks. It belongs to the Primulaceae family, it is endemic of some parts of calcareous, Lucanian, Tyrrhenian and Calabrian coasts (Southern Campania and Basilicata). It is considered a paleoendemic plant, which means it is a living fossil, since it is a relict species belonging to the ancient quaternary, two million and a half years ago. It is the only primrose which does not live in a mountain environment and probably the only surviving member of a family of primroses living on the mountains of Southern Italy and which did not survive the glaciations. They are an endangered species, mainly because of tourism’s development and anthropization, and they are safeguarded by the Bern agreement, a law of the Campania Region of the 12^th January 1994; Poste Italiane dedicated a stamp to them in 1985 which was included in the collection “Flora da salvare” , designed by Giuseppe Ascar.
Primula palinuri presents itself like a small rose with fleshy, tough, viscous leaves with indented margin. The inflorescence is formed by numerous intense gold-yellow flowers, with a chalky-white chalice supported by a stem with a height between 15–20 centimetres.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)