Mountains of Albania

Explanation: Behold the ragged, rugged mountainous terrain of southeast Albania, across the Adriatic from Italy. We are flying near Zheji Natural Park in Gjrokaster County.

The mountains here seem to show geomorphological patterns of uplift of folded strata. The bare mountainsides and mountaintops contain serpentine barrens such as also found in the remote Klamath Mountains of northwestern California. In both locations, here and the Klamaths, have evolved and persisted rare and endemic plant species specific to serpentine situations (Shuka 2009).

Skirting the coastline edge of the Ionian Sea that spans southern Italy,
southeast Albania, and northeast Greece, these images show
vast terrains of scrub and forest cover, bare rocky slopes, and
widely braided river valleys of the region.

In a way, these landscapes are eerily reminiscent of
the landscape of Valles Marineris on Mars!

Albania was a socialist nation. More recently, migrations of inhabitants have served to differentiate rural property patterns among Vlach, Macedonian, and Albanian villagers of the region (Stahl and Sikor 2009).

Information:
    Shuka, L. 2009. New taxonomic data for the flora of Albania recorded on the serpentine substrate (southeast Albania). Natura Montenegrina, Podgorica 8(1):5-10.
    Stahl, J., and T. Sikor. 2009. Rural property in an age of transnational migration: ethnic divisions in southeastern Albania. Anthropologica 51(1):95-107.

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week