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The results of the 4th National Report for the Italian flora under the 92/43/EEC ‘Habitats’ Directive are presented. The outcomes showed a general negative conservation status for plant species, with the worst situation being in the Mediterranean bioregion. At the National level, significant monitoring and conservation activities are required.

This study aims to characterize saline habitats of the Tuscan coast based on the Natura 2000 Habitats Directive 92/43/ECC. These habitats include Atlantic salt meadows (1330), Mediterranean salt meadows (1410) Mediterranean and thermo-Atlantic halophilous scrubs (1420), and Mediterranean salt steppes (1510). We compiled vegetation data from a total of 418 plots carried out during our own fieldwork (N = 157) and published scientific literature (N = 261). We performed a Linear Discriminant Analysis to associate species to habitats and used the phi coefficient of association to identify diagnostic species of each habitat. For each habitat, we provide a regional syntaxonomic framework, constant species, cover coefficients, diagnostic species (phi) and “typical species”. We identified groups of species, that we called “local assembly of typical species”, composed by species with a phi coefficient > 20 and/or a cover coefficient > 50 that can be used to identify the habitats and to monitor their conservation status at the local level. This study revealed differences in the “local assembly of typical species” among habitats, characterized by fewer species in habitats 1420 and 1510, and many species in habitats 1410 and 1310. Our results showed that the habitat 1510 was recognizable only for the high cover value of Limonium narbonense and, at least in Tuscany, its syntaxonomic attribution to the order Limonietalia is uncertain. We tested this approach only for a few habitats, but a broader applicability based on other habitats is desirable.

The contraction of lowland forests throughout Europe began in remote times and then intensified strongly with land reclamation by agriculture and urbanization during the first half of the last century. We present a map of the Floodplain Woods of Tuscany on a scale of 1:300,000 as a synthesis of that built at the scale of 1:10,000 and the methods used to obtain it. Nearly 90% of the patches contain habitats of concern to conservation, according to the Habitat Directive. The Tuscan Floodplain Woods remained prevalent in coastal areas, where some levels of protection are guaranteed by the presence of several protected areas, whereas they have practically vanished in the other parts of the regional territory. The resulting patches are very small and distant from each other, so only in-depth management of all potential floodplain forest areas, taking into consideration patches for their regeneration, can be useful to assure their conservation.

In this contribution, new data concerning the Italian distribution of alien vascular flora are presented. It includes new records, exclusions, confirmations, and status changes for Italy or for Italian administrative regions for taxa in the genera Acer, Amaranthus, Araujia, Aubrieta, Avena, Bidens, Calycanthus, Celtis, Elaeagnus, Eragrostis, Euonymus, Fallopia, Ficus, Hedera, Lantana, Ligustrum, Ludwigia, Morus, Oenothera, Opuntia, Oxalis, Parkinsonia, Paspalum, Paulownia, Platycladus, Pleuropterus, Rumex, Salvia, Senecio, Setaria, Syagrus, Tradescantia, Trifolium and Yucca. Furthermore, a new combination in the genus Vicia is proposed.

In Italy, woods dominated by Quercus petraea are well documented within local and regional phytosociological studies but a critical revision of their principal ecological-floristic components based on a comprehensive Italian data set was missing. We gathered 209 published and unpublished Italian phytosociological releves, where Q. petraea was dominant, that were investigated by means of multivariate analysis. The ecological requirements of the resulting groups were indirectly calculated by means of Ellenberg indicator value, and a chorological analysis was performed. The fidelity coefficient (phi) for the diagnostic species of each group was calculated. According to our analysis, five different types of Q. petraea woods were found to be present in Italy. Each group was characterized by means of its floristic, ecological and chorological components. These resulting five groups were further compared with similar Q. petraea-dominated woods recorded in other European locations, as to the floristic and...

In this contribution, the conservation status of four vascular plants according to IUCN categories and criteria are presented. It includes the assessment ofArceuthobiumoxycedri(DC.) M.Bieb.,IonopsidiumalbiflorumDurieu,TrifoliumlatinumSebast., andViciaincisaM.Bieb. at a Regional level (Italy).

“Plant Resources in the Palaeolithic” is a research project focused on the technologies for plant food processing as documented by use-wear traces and plant residue on grinding tools found in European sites. Many researchers have been involved in the project, which encompasses the fields of archaeology, botany and food processing technologies, within the context of the history of European Prehistoric societies. The first study was carried out on use-wear traces and plant remains recovered from grinding tools from the sites of Bilancino (Italy), Kostienki 16 (Russia) and Pavlov VI (Czech Republic), dating to the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic (Gravettian and Gorotsovian) around 28,000–30,000 cal BP. The results demonstrated that vegetable food processing and the production of flour was a common practice across Europe from at least 30,000 years ago and that flour, a high-energy food, was a component of the food economy of mobile hunter gatherers. Flour production and consumption imply multi-step processing from harvesting to cooking to obtain a suitable and digestible food, and that this was part of an Upper Paleolithic behavioural package. This paper presents new data from two Gravettian pestles, found at Grotta Paglicci – level 23a (Southern Italy) and at Dolni Vestonice I (Czech Republic), which furnish further information about plant exploitation and the technologies related to plant food processing.

The grasslands dominated by Bromus erectus and/or Brachypodium rupestre cover large areas on sandstone and marl-clay-sandstone substrata (limestone is excluded), of the Apennines and pre-Apennines between Pistoia and Arezzo provinces (Tuscany, Central Italy). Our investigation was focused on to 71 unpublished releves and 45 literature releves from Tuscany and surrounding areas, reporting the original releves of Astragalo monspessulani-Brometum erecti, Centaureo bracteatae-Brometum erecti and Ononido masquillerii-Brometum erecti. The releves were submitted to exploratory multivariate analysis, allowing to detect nine distinct groups. Their consistence was verified by mean of NMDS against Ellenberg/Pignatti indicator values, and CCA constrained against chorotypes and growth forms. Diagnostic species of the definitive groups resulting from the analysis were chosen according to species fidelity, based on the φ coefficient of association. The analysis splits the data set in two main subclusters; the first one (A) includes few releves of low altitude, thermophilous conenoses, interpreted as a transition between the submediterranean aspects of Festuco-Brometea class and other Mediterranean herbaceous and shrubby classes; the second subcluster (B) includes most of the data set and can be clearly subdivided in pioneering, mesoxerophilous communities (B1 and B2a groups) and mesophilous communities (B2b group). The releves of clusters B1 and B2a are referred to Coronillo minimae-Astragaletum monspessulanii association and to three other groups: Plantago argentea-Carex caryophyllea communities, Tragopogon samaritani-Bromus erectus communities, Festuco trachyphyllae-Brometum erecti ass. nova. The mesophilous group (B2b) includes the original Centaureo bracteatae-Brometum erecti and Ononido masquillerii-Brometum erecti releves, together with a slightly differentiated community; due to the non-relevant differences between these grassland types from floristic, ecological and chorological perspectives, we propose herewith to treat them as three subassociations of Centaureo bracteatae-Brometum erecti (typicum, ononidetosum masquillerii and linetosum cathartici). Post-cultural grasslands in human-disturbed areas were also detected. All these communities can be attributed to Polygalo mediterraneae-Bromenion erecti suballiance (Bromion alliance), even if a clear subdivision between the mesoxerophilous pioneer aspects and the more mesophilous and evolved ones can be noted.

Secondary grasslands dominated by Nardus stricta are an anthropogenic vegetation type that occurs widely through the Europe from lowlands to mountains. These communities have been recently recognized by the European Community as a habitat of priority interest. The aim of the study is to perform a detailed and complete phytosociological scrutiny of this vegetation in the northern Apennines. Further aims are to detect the factors controlling the floristic variation within these communities and to analyse the variations of Nardus grasslands along a latitudinal gradient from the northern Alps to the southern Apennines. We processed a set of 134 phytosociological releves from the northern Apennines through a cluster analysis based on Kendall’s tau dissimilarity measure. Results showed the occurrence of two different associations of Nardus grasslands (Carlino caulescentis-Nardetum strictae and Violo ferrarinii-Nardetum strictae). Relations between their floristic composition and environmental variables were detected through Redundancy Analysis. The matrix of habitat factors included topographic variables and variables derived from Ellenberg’s indicator values. Elevation was the factor explaining most of the floristic variation. From the comparison of 44 synoptic tables from the Alps, Carpathians and Apennines, processed through a NMDS ordination, we detected two main phytogeographic and ecological thresholds along the latitudinal gradient.

Foggi, B., C. Quercioli, M. Gennai, E. Nardi & M. A. Signorini (2012). Lectotypification of taxa belonging to the “Festuca circummediterranea” group. Candollea 67: 221–228. In English, English and French abstracts. This paper reports the lectotypifications of the names Festuca ovina var. laevis Hack., Festuca ovina subsp. laevis Hack., Festuca circummediterranea Patzke, Festuca duriuscula var. campana N. Terracc. and Festuca campana (N. Terracc.) Alexeev. As the lectotype of Festuca duriuscula var. campana N. Terracc. previously designated by Alexeev is to be considered a neotype, a new lectotype is proposed.

The effects of black-locust invasion on plant forest diversity are still poorly investigated. Vascular plants are likely to be influenced by increasing nutrient availability associated with the nitrogen-fixing activity of black-locust, whereas it is not clear if, along with stand aging, black-locust formations regain forest species. The main aim of the present study was to test whether the increase of black-locust stand age promoted a plant variation in mature stands leading to assemblages similar to those of native forests. Therefore, plant richness and composition of stands dominated by native trees were compared with pure black-locust stands of different successional stages. Our study confirmed that the replacement of native forests by pure black-locust stands causes both plant richness loss and shifts in species composition. In black-locust stands plant communities are dominated by nitrophilous species and lack many of the oligothrophic and acidophilus species typical of native forests. Plant communities of native forests are more diverse with respect to pure black-locust stands, suggesting that black-locust invasion also causes a homogenization of the plant forest biota. We did not detect differences across the successional gradient of black-locust stands, and mature stands do not recover the diversity of plant species which are lost by the replacement of the native forests by black-locust. Accordingly some efforts in reducing the negative impacts of black-locust invasion on plant forest biota should be focused at least in those areas where conservation is among management priorities, such in the case of habitats included in the Habitat Directive (92/43 ECE).

En el presente trabajo se describe la vegetacion del valle del rio Verdiana (Pistoia, Apenino Central) mediante el metodo fitosociologico. Las comunidades vegetales encontradas pertenecen a las siguientes clases: Montio-Cardaminetea, Asplenietea trichomanis, Galio-Urticetea, Mulgedio-Aconitetea, Nardetea strictae, Rhamno-Prunetea, Salici purpureae-Populetea nigrae y Querco-Fagetea. En particular, el estudio ha contribuido a la descripcion de nuevos sintaxones: Asplenio viridis-Cystopteridetum fragilis subass. saxifragetosum cuneifoliae subass. nova y Geranio nodosi-Loniceretum alpigenae ass. nova, de la cual vienen identificadas dos nuevas subasociaciones: loniceretosum alpigenae y loniceretosum nigrae. En el estudio se reconocen cinco habitats de interes conservacionistico (Directive 92/43 EEC).