Field records update native and alien vascular flora across Italy

A floristic compilation documenting native, alien and formerly doubtful vascular plants across Italy records new regional occurrences, confirms historical populations and revises the accepted status of several taxa. The report, “Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 14,” presents georeferenced observations supported by herbarium material and evaluates them against the country’s established regional checklists. Among the new records for native regional floras, Arabis auriculata was found on the southeastern slope of Monte San Marco near Montecopiolo, in Rimini, where grassland contains exposed limestone at 1,100 metres above sea level.

The observation marks the species as new to the flora of Emilia-Romagna. In Piedmont, fully developed plants of Cytisus infestus subsp. infestus were located in mixed scrub below the Strada Provinciale 216 near Alto, Cuneo, at 730 metres. The vegetation there included Mediterranean species such as Osyris alba, and the finding records Cytisus infestus as new to Piemonte.

A cryptogenic species, Elatine hexandra, was reported for the first time in Sardinia. This holarctic plant, associated with temporarily flooded ground, occurs widely in western and northwestern Europe but becomes rare toward southern and eastern Europe. Italian records had previously treated it as cryptogenic in Piemonte, Lombardia, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, while its established Mediterranean-island presence had been reported from Corsica.

The new Sardinian population was found around several semi-natural lakes formed after granite quarries were abandoned near Calangianus, in northern Sardinia. The report also separates confirmed occurrences from older records that had become doubtful. Dracunculus vulgaris, recorded historically in Umbria at Colle della Trinità and Isola Maggiore in Lake Trasimeno, was confirmed near Perugia at Monte di Lacugnano.

Approximately 10 plants occupied about 4,000 square metres of open, rocky Mediterranean-type scrub with a calcareous substrate at 440 metres. Erodium salzmannii was confirmed at Scarlino in Toscana, where it grew in dry grassland at 45 metres; the observation is the first record for peninsular Italy, following a doubtful report from Elba and established records in Sardegna. Several other species were rediscovered after earlier regional reports went unconfirmed.

Maresia nana, reported for Pineto in Abruzzo in 1954 but not subsequently confirmed, was recorded beside a road on sandy ground at Marina di Vasto. Mentha microphylla, first reported in Calabria in 1982 and later regarded as no longer recorded, was found near a fountain at Amendolea in Reggio Calabria. Orobanche pubescens was confirmed in Calabria at Favare near Cirò, where the specimen was recorded growing on Trifolium repens, and Sedum caespitosum was confirmed along a country road near Volta Cammino in Campania, where it formed a small population.

The floristic notes also revise the status of native trees. Prunus avium is changed from naturalized alien to native in both Marche and Umbria. The authors state that no natural, geographical or environmental barriers, nor discontinuities in soil, support treating the populations of those regions differently from populations in surrounding areas.

Ulmus laevis was recorded for the first time in Valle d’Aosta in alluvial woodland along the Dora Baltea near Châtillon and Saint-Vincent. In light of documented native and relictual populations in Piemonte and Lombardia, and the alluvial habitat of the new records, the authors classify the Valle d’Aosta populations as native and relictual. Ranunculus rionii was found in the Isonzo River delta near Staranzano, Friuli Venezia-Giulia, in temporary pools occupying hollows within meadow bordering brackish marsh at the mouth of the river.

Tofieldia calyculata was located in temporary flooded ponds along a stream in the Monti della Laga at 1,650 metres in Lazio, marking its arrival in the regional flora. Viola canina subsp. canina was confirmed near Serra San Bruno in Calabria, where specimens grew in an uncultivated grassy area beside a garden on mildly acidic soil derived from granite; this is the southernmost recorded occurrence of the subspecies in Italy. Coastal and Mediterranean habitats yielded further additions and confirmations.

Ipomoea imperati, regarded as native to Italy and supported by historical Italian records, was confirmed along beaches beside Lake Fusaro and Monte di Cuma in Campania. These localities form the northernmost part of its range, but their persistence is limited: the first site had been destroyed, while the other two contained only one or a few individuals. Sporobolus virginicus was confirmed in grassy ground beside the railway near Pietra Ligure in Liguria.

In Puglia, Scorzonera laciniata subsp. laciniata was confirmed on silty clay at Gravina in Puglia, and Ferulago galbanifera was confirmed at Pulicchio di Gravina and on the rocky spur of Pietra Longa, where it was described as very abundant. The alien flora includes new casual records as well as the confirmation or re-evaluation of previous reports. Allium schoenoprasum subsp. schoenoprasum was recorded for the first time in Campania at Altavilla Silentina, where the specimens came from a single large clump thought to have originated through seed dispersal.

Barbarea verna was reported as new to Veneto from one plant on gravel and sand beside the Adige River at San Giovanni Lupatoto. Long-standing alien records were also examined. Buxus sempervirens was recorded as a casual regional alien new to Puglia at Bosco Marinelli near Bitonto, where it occurs scattered in a wood dominated by Quercus pubescens.

A herbarium specimen from 1898 and later literature document a nineteenth-century introduction, while young plants clearly produced by seed were observed during the survey. Capparis sicula, previously reported doubtfully from walls in Bergamo, was confirmed as a casual regional alien in Lombardia at Cascina Campazzo in Milan, although only one individual was present. The report also summarizes nomenclatural, distributional and status corrections and corrigenda arising from other literature and from the Portal to the Flora of Italy.

Subject of Research: New, confirmed and revised records of native and alien vascular plants in Italy

Article Title: Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 14

Article References: Bartolucci, F., Domina, G., Adorni, M., Andreatta, S., Angiolini, C., Bacchetta, G., Banfi, E., Barberis, D., Bertani, G., Bonari, G., Buccomino, G., Calvia, G., Caputo, P., Cavallaro, V., Conti, F., Cuena-Lombraña, A., D’Aleo, F., D’Amico, F. S., De Fine, G., … Lastrucci, L. (2022). Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 14. Italian Botanist, 14, 119-131. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.14.97813

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.14.97813

Keywords: Italian flora, vascular plants, floristic records, native species, alien species, plant distribution, herbarium specimens, Mediterranean flora, Sardinia, field botany, Notulae, Italian