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Another colourful immigrant, bougainvillea, from Brazil (introduced to Europe in 1829), brightens many a garden wall and terrace, its papery flowers ranging from burgundy-purplish through to orange. One unmistakable landmark plant that spreads like wildfire through abandoned fields, forming impenetrable thorny barriers, is a cactus – the prickly pear, also known under the colourful if misleading name of Barbary fig. Its introduction to Italy from South America is attributed to none other than Christopher Columbus. From spring through to summer it sports pretty, bright yellow, paperish flowers amidst its long, bristling spines, as well as reddish-purple egg-shaped fruit, edible if not particularly tasty once all the insidious prickles have been carefully extracted.

Visitors from the Antipodes will be surprised at the sight of numerous eucalypts, originally introduced to the Mediterranean over past centuries to help drain swampy areas, and which have since themselves become a paradoxical drain on the precious water resources in many cases.