The sides of the volcano are unexpectedly, at least for the collective imagination, rich in vegetation. Many of the plants present on the ground of Etna are the result of a millenary adaptation to the volcanic environment. There are some endemic plants, that is, those that have unique characteristics and are found only in a certain place.

Among the most representative and common plants to observe on the Etna volcano we find, at different altitudes and depending on the time elapsed between the eruptions and the repopulation of the flora, starting from the bottom: mosses and lichens such as the Stereocaulum Vesuvianum which takes root on the roughness of the bare lava rocks after a few years; the sorrel and the Etna chamomile, small pioneer plants which colour the ski and the volcanic sands in spring; the Etna Broom, a normally shrubby plant that here becomes a tree-like and dominates the lava flows after about a century; the Etna birch, which populates in patches only some slopes of the volcano at high altitudes and many others. In the summer, the volcano is essentially an explosion of colors.

HIKING NOTES: During our excursions on Etna it will be possible to see various species of endemic flora.