PINK ASPHODEL IN THE CRACKS OF COLOSSEUM

This project focuses on the Onion-leaved Pink Asphodel (Asphodelo Fistolosus), which unfolds a particularly interesting story. For centuries, the Colosseum was a wild and overgrown place, where rare species found refuge, their stories often emerging in the cracks. As the botanist Richard Deakin noted in the preface to Flora of the Colosseum of Rome: ”Flowers form a link with the memory.” Several of the species he examined were rare in the flora of Rome, notably the Pink Asphodel: “This pretty little plant grows on the upper part of the ruins of the Colosseum, which is the only place that it is known to grow in about Rome.” (Deakin, 1855: 196)
The Pink Asphodel persisted quietly, disappearing from records for decades, only to be glimpsed again in 2000 on the monument’s upper levels, when scaffolding for restoration allowed botanists to reach its hidden populations. Before that, it had last been observed during surveys of the wall flora conducted in the 1940s by Anzalone (Flora e vegetazione dei muri di Roma,1951). Today, the Colosseum still hosts a variety of plants, including very rare species. Scientists believe these plants can only survive when sheltered by the arena, which forms a micro-sanctuary from the urban environment outside.
But how did this flower come to grow in the Colosseum? One myth tells of African animals brought to the games in the arena, their fur carrying seeds across oceans. As Deakin wrote of those inaugural games under Titus:“…the noble and graceful animals from the wilds of Africa brought there in great numbers, and let loose in their wild and famished fury, to tear each other to pieces.” (1855: iv, Preface) Another theory proposes that the seeds came instead with the very stones of the arena, as rare flowers have been found growing at other historical sites, such as Ostia Antica.
Wherever its origin, the Pink Asphodel grows as a testament: a flower that writes memory across stone, and that turns the Colosseum into a living archive of time and ecological resilience. The site-specific observations, supplemented by herbarium study at the Museum Herbarium of Molise (MEM), deepen this exploration, tracing the plant’s delicate persistence and the subtle dialogue between ruins and the life they shelter. 

 
References:
Celesti-Grapow L, Caneva G, Pacini A., The Flora of Colosseum, 2001a
Jacob Coley, Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010
 
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