Pizzo Arera is a mountain of the

Bergamasque Prealps The Bergamasque Prealps () are a mountain range within the Alps. The range is located in Lombardy, in the north of Italy. Geography Administratively the range belongs to the Italian province of Bergamo and, to a lesser extent, to the provinces of ...

of northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Its peak is above sea level.

Geography

It is part of the ridge that divides

Val Seriana The Serio ( Lombard: ''Sère'') is an Italian river that flows entirely within Lombardy, crossing the provinces of Bergamo and Cremona. It is long and flows into the Adda at Bocca di Serio south of Crema Crema or Cremas may refer to: Cr ...

from

Val Brembana Val Brembana is a valley in Lombardy, northern Italy. It takes its name from the river crossing it, the Brembo. Geography The Bergamo Alps form the valley's northern limits, notably the Tre Signori and Diavolo di Tenda Peaks, while at south lie ...

. The town of

Roncobello Roncobello (Bergamasque: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Bergamo in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and about north of Bergamo. Roncobello borders the following municipalities: Ardesio, ...

is nearby. Fossils can be found on some ridges. It is the largest in a group of four mountains that surround Zambla Alta. The residents of the area around the mountain are often bilingual, speaking

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

Bergamasque The Bergamasque dialect is the western variant of the Eastern Lombard group of the Lombard language. It is mainly spoken in the province of Bergamo and in the area around Crema, in central Lombardy. Bergamasque has official status in the pro ...

SOIUSA classification

According to the

SOIUSA Alps by SOIUSA. SOIUSA (an acronym for - English: ''International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps-ISMSA'') is a proposal for a new classification system of the Alps from the geographic and toponomastic point of view. It was designe ...

(''International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps'') the mountain can be classified in the following way: * main part =

Eastern Alps Eastern Alps is the name given to the eastern half of the Alps, usually defined as the area east of a line from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine valley up to the Splügen Pass at the Alpine divide and down the Liro River to Lake Como in the ...

* major sector =

Southern Limestone Alps The Southern Limestone Alps ( it, Alpi Sud-orientali, german: Südliche Kalkalpen), also called the Southern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps south of the Central Eastern Alps mainly located in northern Italy and the adjacent l ...

* section =

Bergamasque Alps and Prealps The Bergamasque Alps and Prealps (''Alpi e Prealpi Bergamasche'' in Italian) are a mountain range in the southern part of the Alps. They are located in Lombardy, in the northern part of Italy. Geography Administratively the range belongs to the ...

* subsection =

* supergroup = Prealpi Bergamasche Centrali * group = Gruppo Arera-Menna * subgroup = Gruppo dell'Arera *

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

= II/C-29.II-B.5.a

Geology

Arera is composed mainly of

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

s, most of them

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

Flora

Alpine regions have a high rate of

endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

and a high diversity of plant species. This

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

diversity can be attributed to

geographical isolation Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

microhabitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

differentiation. '' Galium montis-arerae'', the Pizzo Arera bedstraw, is a rare plant species in the

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules ...

.Hermann Merxmüller & Friedrich Ehrendorfer. 1957. ''Galium montis-arerae'', eine neue Sippe der Bergamasker Alpen. Oesterreichische Botanische Zeitschrift 104: 228-233
/ref> It is named after the mountain,

locus classicus {{Short pages monitor