Pseudo-Mediterranean scrub

Similar to standard Mediterranean maquis scrub, this type of vegetation is typical of the Euganean area and consists of almost impenetrable vegetation featuring shrubs, most of which are evergreen, such as holm oak, arbutus, tree heather, rock-roses, terebinth, broom and wild asparagus. Scattered throughout the area, such vegetation grows on dry, south-facing rocky volcanic terrain in full sun. In some rocky areas near Mount Ceva in Battaglia, Monselice's Rocca hill and the Oratory of St Anthony the Abbot on Monte della Madonna, you'll find the Eastern Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa), a true miniature cactus originally from the rocky plateaus of Central America.