Palude del Capitano
At about 2 km south of Torre Sant'Isidoro, visible from the road and towards the coast, there is a stretch of water called "Palude del Capitano", with a maximum width of 125 meters.
The water fills to the edge a subterranean cavity whose vault has collapsed: a typical example of the karstic phenomena characterizing Salento.
The clear stretch of brackish water is fed by the fresh water resurgences and by the sea water infiltrations which, through a thick network of canals, connect the marsh to the sea.
In the marsh it is possible to find grey mullets and eels which, thanks to the canal network, can reach the sea. The widgeongrass (Ruppia maritima), a thread-like plant living submerged in water, covers most of the marsh seabed. The presence in the marsh of one of the rarest plants of the Italian flora is of extraordinary scientific value: it is the Thorny Burnett (Sarcopoterium spinosum) which, in Italy, lives only here and in a few other locations (Calabria, Sicily, and Sardinia). It is a not very showy plant of the Rose family that can be easily recognized for its characteristic very thorny branches, a feature representing its adaptation to the dry and brackish environment of the rocky coast.
