Parco Naturale dei Nebrodi

(1,025m - 1,063m - 1,209m above sea-level)
The presence of the ilex in this area of the Municipality of San Fratello is doubly surprising: first, because this species in the Nebrodi never forms so extended top-soils (about 250 hectares), even if it is sporadically frequent; second, the altitude progression is characterized by a singular phenomenon called by botanists "vegetational inversion"; as a matter of fact, the ilex wood can be found at an altitude which is unusually high for its species, and higher than the one of the Turkey oak wood.