Bosco Olmè di Cessalto

The Forest currently belongs to the Municipality of Cessalto. The Forest represents one of the most significant expressions of the “oak-hornbeam” type, that is, the model of potential forest vegetation of the low Veneto-Friuli plain. The building element of the forest is the tree: the forest itself is essentially a spontaneous aggregation of trees of the same species or different species and thus constitutes a “tree community.” In this case, the tree plays a role in the biological and structural building of the forest, and around it, the complex living world of plants and animals that makes up the forest biome appears distributed and organized. However, to analyze the distribution of animal organisms in the biotope, it is first necessary to understand the structure of the plant component, that is, the forms and development of the living plants in the forest, from which, it is known, animals are closely dependent. It is therefore possible to understand that the presence of groupings of trees creates environmental conditions that allow for the development of a complex plant community. This results in a notable complexity of organization, where stratification and distribution combine to give rise to a zoned mosaic. A typically herbaceous flora can be found, with yellow iris, pendulous sedge, buttercup, accompanied by rare shrubs of bloodcurrant. In the denser areas of tree vegetation, the herbaceous undergrowth appears even denser, with rare species such as fox grape, hellebore, Pyrenean star-of-Bethlehem, Martagon lily, and woodruff, while the shrubs develop more modestly, predominantly with elder and frequent presence of hawthorn. Various species of mollusks, insects, reptiles, raptors, amphibians, and mammals such as agile frog, shrew, beetles, butterflies, robins, and blackbirds are present.