Atlantic puffin Medieval Latin "fratercula", friar, a reference to the black and white plumage which resembles monastic robes. The specific name "arctica" refers to the northerly distribution of the bird, being derived from the Greek ἄρκτος ("arktos"), the bear, referring to the northerly constellation, the Great Bear. The vernacular name "puffin" – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated species Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"), which in 1652 was known as the "Manks puffin". It is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English "pophyn" or "poffin") used for the cured carcasses.
Giannutri in the northern part which become "garrigue" in the southern. Plants as "arbutus", "Myrtus", "pistacia lentiscus", mock privet, Mediterranean buckthorn, "juniperus phoenicea" and "limonium sommierianum" knew only on Isola del Giglio and Montecristo, grow up on the island. The mild climate has favoured the growth of plants such as "euphorbia", palm trees and wild orchids. The marine flora is abundant in sponges, madreporaria, black coral and red coral. The island, as all that of the Tuscan Archipelago, is a place where the bird migration take a stop along their seasonal movement from North to South. The Audouin's gull, Puffinus yelkouan,