The two woods that form this reserve are the last remaining portions of well-conserved cork oak wood. Cork oaks play a key role from the bio-geographic point of view because they are very rare along the whole Italian Adriatic coast.
Their well-furnished brushwood consists of typical species of the Mediterranean maquis that live nowhere else in the Salento peninsula.
The wood of Lucci is a wood portion of just a few hectares covered with cork oaks and a thick Mediterranean maquis.
As these woods are surrounded by an agricultural environment, they are one of the few refuges for many animal species.
Since this reserve is home to species and habitats of Community interest, it is included in the list of sites of Community importance (SCI) ‘Natura 2000’ as ‘Bosco di Santa Teresa IT91400060’.