Annalisa Santangelo

An updated checklist of the vascular flora native to Italy.

Abstract An updated inventory of the native vascular flora of Italy, providing details on the occurrence at regional level, is presented. The checklist includes 8195 taxa (6417 species and 1778 subspecies), distributed in 1092 genera and 152 families; 23 taxa are lycophytes, 108 ferns and fern allies, 30 gymnosperms and 8034 angiosperms. The taxa currently occurring in Italy are 7483, while 568 taxa have not been confirmed in recent times, 99 are doubtfully occurring in the country and 19 are data deficient. Out of the 568 not confirmed taxa, 26 are considered extinct or possibly extinct.

Are Red Lists really useful for plant conservation? The New Red List of the Italian Flora in the perspective of national conservation policies

“The New Red List of the Italian Flora” includes all the Italian policy species and other species of known conservation concerns for a total of 400 taxa, 65% of which are threatened with extinction. The Red List is based on a huge georeferenced data-set useful for conservation purposes.

Conserving plant diversity in Europe: outcomes, criticisms and perspectives of the Habitats Directive application in Italy

Habitat Directive is the core strategy of nature conservation in Europe aiming at halting biodiversity loss. In this study the results of the third Italian assessment regarding the conservation status (CS) of plants listed in the Habitat Directive (Flora of community interest—FCI) was presented. Data was collected from several sources related to plant distribution, population data, habitats and pressures. Following the official European procedure, all parameters were evaluated and combined to give the CS of each taxon in each biogeographical region of presence. A comparison between the recent Italian IUCN and Reporting assessments was performed in order to evaluate the consistency between these two assessments. The official EU checklist comprises 113 Italian plant taxa, 107 of which were examined in this study. Our results showed a critical situation with only 34% of favourable CS, while 50% were unfavourable (40% inadequate plus 10% bad) and 16% unknown, in particular in the Mediterranean bioregion, where the unfavourable assessments reach the 65%. The results of the Report were consistent with those of the IUCN assessment, in which 41.9% of plants were threatened with extinction. This report highlighted some benefits and criticisms at national level, but it may have a wider significance. Although a general advance of knowledge, a great effort is needed to reach the Habitats Directive goals. Despite the limited resources, monitoring activities needs to be improved in order to close information gaps for several plants. A positive outcome was the development of a specific national project funded by the Italian Ministry of Environment, with the ambitious target to set future monitoring activities for FCI and optimize monitoring efforts.

New distributional data of the rare endemic species Eokochia saxicola (Guss.) Freitag and G. Kadereit (Chenopodiaceae): Effects on biogeography and conservation

Eokochia saxicola (Guss.) Freitag & G. Kadereit is a very rare endemic species of southern Italy and one of the rarest plants in Europe, included as priority species in the Annex II of the Council Directive 92/43/EEC. During the floristic surveys in the Cilento e Vallo di Diano National Park (Campania region, southern Italy), with the aim to assess the conservation status of rare and/or endemic species, new sites of occurrence of E. saxicola have been recorded representing the first known mainland sites; in fact, this endemic species was previously recorded only in the insular sites of Ischia (where it is extinct) and Capri in Campania region and Strombolicchio in Sicily region. Moreover, a further site was found in Capri island. So, three new sites of occurrence of E. saxicola have been recorded, increasing the total number from the two previously known to the actual five; in Campania, the total number increased from one to four. The research also increased significantly the global population size, currently made up of about 270 individuals compared with the 150 previously known. Consequences for the biogeography of the species and practical issues for conservation are discussed.

New alien vascular species for the flora of southern Italy

Abstract In the present work new or confirmed alien not-cultivated vascular plants are reported for the flora of the southern Italy regions: Acalypha virginica, Alcea biennis subsp. biennis, Bidens subalternans, Cardamine occulta, Casuarina equisetifolia, Cedrus atlantica, Cedrus deodara, Chamaeiris orientalis, Cotula coronopifolia, Elodea canadensis, Eragrostis mexicana subsp. virescens, Euphorbia nutans, Fagopyrum esculentum, Ficus microcarpa, Hesperocyparis arizonica, Hesperocyparis glabra, Kalanchoë × houghtonii, Lantana camara subsp. aculeata, Lemna minuta, Ligustrum sinense, Lobelia erinus, Lonicera japonica, Oenothera lindheimeri, Panicum capillare, Persicaria capitata, Phyla nodiflora, Schinus molle, Sedum palmeri, Sesbania punicea, Solanum elaeagnifolium, Solanum sisymbriifolium and Veronica peregrina. Furthermore, Lantana montevidensis is new for the Italian alien flora, Asparagus asparagoides and Tradescantia pallida are reported for the first time in continental Italy, whereas Cucurbita moschata, Nandina domestica and Taxodium distichum are new for the Italian peninsula. Moreover, field surveys in Campania allow us to update at regional level the naturalization status of Euphorbia nutans (naturalized) and Ligustrum sinense (casual). The new data confirm that new non-native species are continuously introduced into the flora of southern Italy and it is noteworthy that several species, widely used in the reforestation since the middle of the last century, have undergone naturalization in recent years.

Lectotypification of the names Arenaria graminifolia Ard., Arenaria rosani Ten. and Arenaria alpicola Ten. (Caryophyllaceae)

Three names based on Italian specimens relating to the Minuartia graminifolia complex are lectotypified. Arenaria graminifolia, the basionym of Minuartia graminifolia (Ard.) Jav. subsp. graminifolia is lectotypified by an Arduino specimen at LINN, and Arenaria rosani, the basionym of M. graminifolia subsp. rosani (Ten.) Mattf. by a Tenore collection at NAP; both lectotypifications maintain current usage of these names. In addition, Arenaria alpicola Ten., now considered a synonym of Minuartia graminifolia subsp. clandestina (Portenschl.) Mattf., is also lectotypified by a Tenore collection at NAP referable to that subspecies.

Are Red List really useful for plant conservation? The New Red List of the Italian Flora as a study case in the perspective of national conservation policies

“The New Red List of the Italian Flora” includes all the Italian policy species and other species of known conservation concerns for a total of 400 taxa, 65% of which are threatened with extinction. The Red List is based on a huge georeferenced data-set useful for conservation purposes.