Forgotten mountain yields 11 botanical surprises in Italy’s Apennines

Mount Pennino, a limestone massif straddling the border between the Italian regions of Umbria and Marche, has long lived in the shadow of its celebrated neighbours. In 1887, the Perugia botanist Andrea Batelli lamented that the mountain was forgotten, squeezed between the historically famous Mount Subasio and the taller, legend-shrouded Sibillini Mountains with their woolly edelweiss. More than 130 years later, a team of Italian botanists has shown that Batelli’s second-rate mountain deserves far more attention than it ever received, documenting a flora rich in endemics, Red List species and regional first records.

The new survey, published in Italian Botanist, reports the results of the 2021 annual field trip of the Working Group for Floristics, Systematics and Evolution of the Italian Botanical Society, organised by botanists from the Herbarium Universitatis Camerinensis at the University of Camerino. Over just two and a half days, from 24 to 26 June 2021, twenty participants intensively sampled roughly 700 hectares of the massif, which rises from 670 metres to 1,571 metres above sea level at the summit of Mount Pennino, within the municipalities of Nocera Umbra in Perugia and Fiuminata in Macerata.

To maximise coverage of the vascular flora, the team divided the study area into six sectors spanning deciduous woods, montane grasslands, rocky slopes, shrublands and humid environments. Sampling sites ranged from the south-western slopes of Mount Pennino and nearby Mount Acuto to the summit grasslands and the northern slopes of Colle Grugnoleta and Monte Finiglia in the Marche sector. The participants identified their own collections using standard floras and recent taxonomic literature, and critical specimens were later revised during a dedicated session at the Herbarium Universitatis Camerinensis in February 2022.

Some of the trickiest material required outside expertise. Specimens belonging to difficult genera such as Hieracium, Orobanche, Thymus, Anthyllis, Armeria, Koeleria, Brachypodium, Anthoxanthum and Juniperus were sent to specialists in Milan, Barisciano, Pisa, Tbinging, Palermo and elsewhere for definitive determination. The nomenclature follows the latest checklists of the vascular flora native and alien to Italy, and herbarium vouchers were deposited in public and private collections, ensuring that every record can be verified.

The tally is impressive for such a short campaign: 1,461 samples representing 413 species and subspecies, including one hybrid, distributed across 234 genera and 64 families. Thirty-seven taxa are endemic to Italy, and 42 species, about 10.2 percent of the list, are included in the IUCN Red List of the Italian Flora. Strikingly, only three alien species were recorded, namely Centaurea cyanus, Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare and Matricaria discoidea subsp. discoidea, a remarkably low figure that points to the intact character of the mountain’s vegetation.

The headline result is the discovery of eleven floristic novelties for the regional floras of Umbria and Marche. Anthoxanthum ovatum and the natural hybrid Brachypodium retusum by Brachypodium rupestre are new to the flora of Marche, with the hybrid found near the mountain top. Six taxa are entirely new for Umbria: Anthoxanthum ovatum, Dianthus carthusianorum subsp. carthusianorum, Erysimum apenninum, Hieracium pseudogrovesianum, Koeleria lucana and Koeleria pyramidata. A further four taxa are confirmed for Umbria after long absence from the records: Cynanchica pyrenaica subsp. neglecta, Polygala nicaeensis subsp. italiana, Stachys germanica subsp. germanica and Trigonella elegans.

Several of these records carry real biogeographic weight. Anthoxanthum ovatum was previously known in Italy only from Toscana, Campania, Calabria, Sicilia and Sardegna, so the central Apennine populations substantially extend its distribution. Polygala nicaeensis subsp. italiana had been reported only for Emilia-Romagna and Toscana, with a single historical Umbrian record from 1865, and the new collections fill a conspicuous gap in central Italy. Most notably, the endemic grass Koeleria lucana, described relatively recently from the Lucanian Apennines, now has its northernmost known stations on Mount Pennino, a significant range extension for a species of conservation interest.

The Red List component of the flora is equally telling. Of the 42 listed taxa, 36 are Italian endemics, comprising 26 species assessed as Least Concern, nine as Data Deficient and one as Nearly Threatened; only the recently recognised endemic Siler montanum subsp. stabianum has not yet been evaluated. The proportion of endemics and Red List species in the Umbrian sector is slightly higher than in other comparable mountain territories of the central Apennines, and the 30 Italian endemic taxa found there represent about a quarter of all endemics known from Umbria.

Not everything could be resolved in the field. Some specimens preliminarily attributed to the endemic knapweed Centaurea arrigonii require further study to clarify their taxonomic identity, and the authors emphasise that a survey lasting only two and a half days cannot be exhaustive. The massif’s geology of limestone bedrock, its annual rainfall of 1,200 to 1,300 millimetres concentrated in autumn and winter, and average temperatures between 7.5 and 11.5 degrees Celsius support beech coppices dominated by Fagus sylvatica, Turkey oak and hop hornbeam woods, and species-rich grasslands of Bromopsis erecta, Brachypodium rupestre, Sesleria nitida and Sesleria juncifolia, habitats that likely harbour many more species outside the June flowering peak.

Taken together, the findings argue that Batelli’s mediocrity has, at last, its historians. The combination of eleven regional novelties, a high share of endemics and Red List species, and an almost complete absence of aliens suggests that the Mount Pennino massif holds flora of considerable conservation value in this sector of the Umbria-Marche Apennines. The researchers conclude that the area deserves further investigation, and given what a brief expedition revealed, the misty colossus that Batelli defended in 1887 may soon surrender many more of its botanical secrets.

Subject of Research: Botany

Article Title: Contribution to the floristic knowledge of Mount Pennino massif (Umbria-Marche Apennines, central Italy)

Article References: Tardella, F. M., Pennesi, R., Ballelli, S., Cancellieri, L., Caruso, G., Falcinelli, F., Fascetti, S., Galasso, G., Gigante, D., Laface, V. L. A., Lattanzi, E., Lavezzo, P., Musarella, C. M., Pinzani, L., Quattrini, G., Rosati, L., Spada, F., Stinca, A., Tilia, A., & Catorci, A. (2024). Contribution to the floristic knowledge of Mount Pennino massif (Umbria-Marche Apennines, central Italy). Italian Botanist, 18, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.18.128215

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.18.128215

Keywords: floristics, Mount Pennino, Apennines, endemic plants, IUCN Red List, Umbria, Marche, Italy, plant conservation, biodiversity, Contribution, floristic