Male individuals in cultivated Fritillaria persica L. (Liliaceae): real androdioecy or gender disphasy?

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From Bullettino della Società Botanica Italiana to Italian Botanist, passing through Informatore Botanico Italiano. A 128 years–long story

In 1888, concomitant with the foundation of the Italian Botanical Society, a section called Bullettino della Società Botanica Italiana appeared in the last pages of each issue of volume 20 of the Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano (currently the international journal Plant Biosystems)...

Morphology, germination, and storage behaviour in seeds of Tuscan populations of Fritillaria montana (Liliaceae), a rare perennial geophyte in Italy

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Checklist della flora vascolare psammofila della Toscana

Checklist of the psammophilous vascular flora of Tuscany. An updated list of the psammophilous vascular flora occurring in coastal areas of Tuscany is presented. The list is based on bibliographic analysis and field studies effected ad hoc in the year 2012-2013. 704 specific and infraspecific taxa are reported (641 native). They belong to 383 genera and 90 families. Most represented families are Poaceae (13%), Asteraceae (12%), Fabaceae (10%), Caryophyllaceae (5%), Apiaceae (4%). 63 units are naturalized exotic species (about 9% of the flora). Aloe arborescens is a casual exotic newly recorded for Tuscany. The Italian endemics are 6, of which three are exclusive of sandy Tuscan coasts (Centaurea aplolepa Moretti subsp. subciliata (DC.) Arcang., Limonium etruscum Arrigoni & Rizzotto, Solidago litoralis Savi). Only 11 taxa were recorded in all or almost all the study areas: Ammophila arenaria (L.) Link subsp. arundinacea H.Lindb, Cakile maritima Scop. subsp. maritima, Calystegia soldanella (L.) Roem. & Schult., Echinophora spinosa L., Eryngium maritimum L., Kali tragus (L.) Scop. s.l., Lagurus ovatus L. subsp. ovatus, Medicago marina L., Pancratium maritimum L., Sporobolus virginicus Kunth

Taxonomy, typification and karyology of Crepis lacera (Asteraceae)

Crepis lacera is a diploid species (2n = 8), mostly occurring in Italy, with a disjunct population in Albania. The names C. lacera, C. latialis and C. lacera f. titani are here lectotypified, and their taxonomic value is discussed. For the latter name, based on morphological, biogeographical and karyological results, we propose here the subspecific rank (C. lacera subsp. titani stat. nov.). In addition, basal leaf morphology variation, the main distinguishing feature between the two subspecies, is discussed in the light of paedomorphosis, and a distribution map for both subspecies is presented

Contribution to the vascular flora of Papasidero (north-western Calabria, Italy)

A floristic survey of the Papasidero municipality (54.65 km2) was carried out from 2008 to 2011, allowing us to list 580 specific and infraspecific taxa (567 verified by us), belonging to 353 genera and 89 families. Several species are rather interesting from a phytogeographic and/or conservation point of view. 14 exotic species were also recorded, 10 of which are considered invasive in the regional flora. The most represented families are Asteraceae (66 taxa), Fabaceae (56), Lamiaceae (40), Poaceae (31), while most represented genera are Trifolium (11), Euphorbia and Ophrys (9), Lathyrus and Geranium (8). Biological and chorological spectra show a clear dominance of Hemicriptophytes and Mediterranean elements respectively, as one can expect based on the climatic conditions of the area at issues

Genetic differentiation among populations of the threatened Bellevalia webbiana (Asparagaceae) and its consequence on conservation

The narrow central Italian endemic and threatened Webb's hyacinth (Bellevalia webbiana), a perennial herb, is a clear example of a species that has disappeared from several localities due to the de..

Heterotopy remastered with a quantitative tool: The case study of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L. subsp. sylvatica) in peninsular Italy and Sicily

The term “heterotopic” (from the Greek roots "hetero-" meaning "other" + "topos" meaning "place" = other place) was used for the first time in biology by Haeckel (1) to define a change in germ-layer origin of reproductive organs in animals. Later, it was applied to phytogeography by Jackson (2), referring to those plant populations found on soils apparently very different from those typically occurring across their distribution range. In Italy, Negri (3) was likely the first to use this term referring to European beech (Fagus sylvatica L. subsp. sylvatica) populations occurring at low altitude. Since then, most of the further Italian authors used the term “heterotopic” mainly referring to beech or other woody species (i.e. Ilex aquifolium L., Quercus ilex L.) populations occurring out of their common altitudinal range or, in a broader sense, growing out of their typical macroclimatic context. Indeed, as regards European beech populations in Italy, those occurring below 800 m a.s.l. have been generally considered as heterotopic (4), even though in many cases stands above 800 m a.s.l. were also termed as “heterotopic” (e.g. 5, 6). Here, we highlight the need to quantify “heterotopy” and propose a standard method to test a reliable applicability of this concept. As model species, we selected the European beech in peninsular Italy and Sicily, primarily because this species is typically dominant in mountain woods in all the considered area and, historically, a number of stands have been reported as heterotopic in literature. We checked 18 bibliographic references reporting 108 populations as heterotopic (sometimes not explicitly, but with related terms like extra-zonal). We also randomly generated 305 points falling within the polygons of natural potential vegetation (7) with F. sylvatica, as provided by http://www.va.minambiente.it/, and considered them as controls. Both controls and putatively heterotopic populations were georeferenced by means of a GIS software. Climatic and altitudinal data associated with the occurrence sites were extracted from the Worldclim database (www.worldclim.org). We obtained a data matrix (413 beech stands × 6 environmental variables) that was subjected to a cluster analysis applying as the distance measure the Euclidean Distance and as group linkage method the Group Average (UPGMA), following the methodology commonly used in vegetation studies. Two main clusters were identified, with a dissimilarity index of 0.35. The first cluster is composed by all those populations (including some control points) located at an altitude ≤ 600 m a.s.l., whereas the second one includes all the remaining points. The former cluster is also characterized by those populations growing on stands with a higher mean annual temperature than the latter (t-test, difference between means = 4.09 °C, p < 0.01). These results led us to define as “quantitatively heterotopic” in Italy those beech populations located at an altitude ≤ 600 m a.s.l., and with a mean annual temperature generally higher than 12 °C. They mainly occur on the Tyrrhenian side, namely in Tuscany and Lazio, marked by a high oceanicity. Many of these populations are located outside of vegetation series with European beech and, among these, some are distant more than 20 km, so that they could be interpreted not only as heterotopic, but also as biogeographical-ecological relicts (8). Our methodology could be applied to other species in order to quantify the level of heterotopy by defining ad hoc thresholds (if any), resulting from the multivariate analysis