Vegetation

The steep slopes of the Cinque Terre's coast are covered with a high vegetation consisting of several shrubs, such as rockroses, heaths, spurges and strawberry trees. On drier and rocky soils one finds the garrigue, where some aromatic plant species grow, such as the rosemary, the thyme, the curry plant and the lavender.
The caper, growing in the clefts of the dry-stone walls, is a remaining cultivation from the last century.
At higher altitudes there area artificial pinewoods and chestnut forests, a fundamental cultivation for the people's sustenance, in a territory where wheat could not be cultivated.
Among the several trees growing in this territory it is worth mentioning the turkey oak, the cork oak and the downy oak, in the past they were three very important oaks for the economy of the Cinque Terre, since they were used to obtain wood and acorns for the cattle.