Troodos and the Paphos Forest

In Troodos one can spot mountain butterflies and damselflies as well as many bird species not found elsewhere on the island. There are inidigenous lizards and snakes as well. Crabs and frogs can be found in several of the freshwater mountain streams.

In 1948 Trout was introduced in several streams for the first time and research indicates it is reproducing there very well. The first inhabitants of the island, in the neolithic period, apparently brought with them various animals, deer, wild boar, moufflon and a kind of wild goat.

Some of them must have escaped and formed wild populations. Some took refuge in the largely inaccessible forests of Troodos and Paphos. Deer and boar disappeared. Moufflon, Ovis orientalis ophion, (now apparently renamed Ovis gmelini ophion) survived. This has evolved, rather surprising for such a short time, into an endemic form.

Its population by the beginning of this century was reduced to a few dozen and it was then on the brink of extinction. The threats to it were intensive hunting, the spread of agriculture and the reduction of the forests. The moufflon population, because of strict protection, has increased substantially in the last few decades. Its population is now tentatively estimated at over one thousand animals. Moufflon can be found throughout the Paphos Forest.

Cedar Forest
Today, the island's Cedar forest is restricted to one valley only. It also suffered from lumbering for shipbuilding and from forest fires. Under these circumstances its natural regeneration was also influenced from competition, from the more prolific Brutia Pine which is quicker in occupying vacant niches.

The need for agricultural land led for many centuries to the clearing of forested areas. Vineyards and orchards replaced pine forests. It was not until late in the last century and the beginning of the present one, that strict forest protection and management practices were introduced. Grazing by goats, which had its impact in Cyprus, as it did in the rest of the Mediterranean, was also brought under control in many forest areas. Hunting is now prohibited in Paphos Forest and in parts of Troodos.

High up on Troodos, in what approaches a semi-alpine zone on Khionistra, with its unique weather and soil conditions, special vegetation communities have evolved. In this area we find Juniperus foetidissima, a Cypress-like Juniper that is restricted to the topmost slopes of Khionistra. The Black Pine starts at an altitude of about 1.300 metres and finishes at just below this peak. At these higher altitudes it replaces the Brutia Pine, which covers most of the lower mountains - including the Paphos Forest - and stretches down to the plains.

A great many of Cyprus' endemic plants are found on Troodos, especially in the higher altitudes. Out of the 130 or so Cyprus' endemic plants more than a third are found only on Troodos and mainly above 1,000 metres. The distribution of many other non-endemic plants in Cyprus is also restricted to the higher reaches of Troodos.

The yellow flowered Alyssum troodi, an endemic species and A. cypricum, a near endemic, are confined, like many other endemic plants, to the serpentinite areas of Troodos. On Troodos many plants flower late in spring, well after the snows have melted spectacular, rosy-purple flowered Peonies can be found near Prodromos and in the forest in Madhari and Papoutsa.

Under pine trees both in the Black pine zone and lower down grows the saprophytic orchid Limodorum abortivum, leafless, light purple and often taller than half a metre. Many other species of orchids grow high up on Troodos - Helleborine orchids, locally known as "The Holy Virgin's Tears," such as Epipactis troodi. As its name infers, it grows mainly in Cyprus, where it grows only on Troodos.

Alder and the Oriental Plane Tree are common on river banks in many valleys. The endemic Cyprus Golden Oak, Quercus alnifolia, covers extensive scree areas, on steep slopes and is characteristic of the Troodos landscape. Strawberry trees, Arbutus andrachne, with their bright red fruit, shiny stem and branches, flourish mainly in the more humid areas, as do wild roses and Myrtle. Various rock-roses and an endemic Thyme (Thymus integer) abound in the area.

Lower down on stream banks, in places such as the valley of Karkotis river, other communities and plants can be found. One of the great orchids rarities, Epipactis veratrifolia, which can reach one metre in height, honeysuckle, wild violets and the insectivorous Pinguicula crystallina, with its fleshy, sticky leaves, can be found here.