Flowers around the Colosseum
Flowers from North Africa are still growing around the Colosseum. Their seeds were probably brought to Rome thanks to lions and other exotic animals (eg. in fur), which were brought to the capital for the Games. In the nineteenth century, nearly 420 different types of plants were cataloged around the Flavian Amphitheater.
Currently, this number is much smaller due to the large number of tourists visiting the monument and affecting the Roman flora badly. Certainly, in the nineteenth century, the spring around the Colosseum was extremely abundant and colorful.
Sources
- Rome’s Colosseum Was Once a Wild, Tangled Garden, "The Atlantic", 5 December 2017
