The A. lasenii population at Agro Nero–Illica in Accumoli significantly extends the species’ disjunct Apennine range. Records of A. tirolensis at Agro Nero–Illica and on Monte Cavallo near Picinisco extend its reported range southward. Maiella collections established Carex hartmaniorum as new to Abruzzo and the Apennines.

Specimens previously identified as C. buxbaumii were reassigned to C. hartmaniorum, which was also documented in wetlands around Palena and Ovindoli. The compilation correspondingly proposed excluding C. buxbaumii from the Abruzzo flora. New regional records were reported for Astragalus hypoglottis subsp. gremlii in Puglia and Avena barbata in Valle d’Aosta. Further records concerned Centranthus angustifolius in Toscana and Gagea minima in Abruzzo. Additional regional records concerned Plantago altissima in Umbria and Salix eleagnos in Puglia.

Several entries confirmed earlier regional reports. These included Centaurea dichroantha in Veneto, Filago congesta in Sardegna and Stachys romana in Piemonte. A specimen-based finding of Chenopodiastrum hybridum in Toscana represented the region’s unique recent record supported by herbarium material, while later findings of Lappula squarrosa confirmed that species’ presence after older records had left its status uncertain.

The compilation also proposed exclusions. Aethusa cynapium subsp. cynapium was excluded from Campania, and the Abruzzo record of Seseli annuum subsp. annuum was referred instead to S. pallasii, which was added to the regional flora. Lysimachia monellii was excluded from Sardegna because its red-flowered populations were assigned to the distinct species L. collina following molecular analyses.

Among regional alien plants, Crepis foetida subsp. rhoeadifolia was recorded as a naturalized alien new to Lazio. Nymphoides peltata was likewise reported as a naturalized alien new to Calabria. Its occupied area was described as increasing from approximately 1 square metre when first detected four years earlier to more than 50 square metres, although the pathway of spread remained unresolved.

Onobrychis viciifolia changed from casual to naturalized alien status in Sardegna. Historical records documented cultivation on the island from the eighteenth century, while more recent observations showed substantial spread along major roads in northern Sardegna, including large populations along the SS 729 and adjoining routes. The authors considered these records evidence of naturalization rather than occasional cultivation or subspontaneous occurrence.

The nomenclatural section establishes Valeriana pontecorvi as a new combination based on Centranthus pontecorvi. The authors related this treatment to molecular phylogenetic studies in which Centranthus formed a well-supported monophyletic clade nested within Valeriana. Additional nomenclatural and distribution updates and corrigenda to a 2024 flora are provided in supplementary material.

Subject of Research: Italian native and alien vascular plant distribution records and taxonomic revisions

Article Title: Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 20

Article References: Bartolucci, F., Domina, G., Angiolini, C., Argenti, C., Bacchetta, G., Barberis, D., Bertotto, G., Bonari, G., Calvia, G., Candini, F., Coltri, F., Conti, F., Del Guacchio, E., Di Pietro, R., Festi, F., Fois, M., Forte, L., Galasso, G., Gallo Splendore, M., … Lastrucci, L. (2025). Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 20. Italian Botanist, 20, 89-107. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.20.179511

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.20.179511

Keywords: floristic records, vascular plants, Italy, plant distribution, alien species, herbarium specimens, taxonomy, nomenclature, biodiversity monitoring, Notulae, Italian, native

Native grasslands in the southeastern United States have lost an estimated 90% of their former range, according to the study’s introduction, and the remaining Virginia Piedmont fragments face habitat loss, fragmentation, altered disturbance regimes, invasive species and climate-related changes. Many surviving sites persist as semi-natural communities maintained by disturbance such as grazing or mowing, which limits shading by woody vegetation. The authors said the remaining grasslands can include some of the most endemic-species-rich habitats in eastern North America.

Researchers located potential fragments through satellite-image inspection, structured driving surveys and consultations with regional botanical experts. They selected 132 species-rich sites dominated by native heliophytic plants to establish a reference state for conservation and restoration. Sampling excluded actively hayed or grazed sites, sites known to have been planted with native wildflower seed and sites containing non-native species indicative of commercial meadow-seed mixtures.

Each site was sampled with one to three 100-square-metre plots, generally without adult trees, during June through November. Investigators recorded woody and herbaceous plants to the lowest practical taxonomic level and estimated species cover. Surveys were conducted in the northern Piedmont in 2020 and the central Piedmont in 2021. Soil samples combining at least five cores per site were analyzed for properties including pH, nutrients, organic matter, cation exchange capacity, estimated nitrogen release and bulk density.

The researchers recorded 604 native taxa, representing 86.9% of the total; 66 introduced taxa, or 9.5%; 20 invasive taxa, or 2.9%; and five taxa of uncertain status in Virginia, or 0.7%. Only 23 taxa occurred at half or more of the 132 sites, while 518 occurred at 10% or fewer, indicating substantial variation among communities. Six plots contained at least 100 species, and the most species-rich plot contained 114, including 103 native species. The surveys also found 13 state- or globally rare species, including the globally imperiled Torrey’s mountain-mint and basil mountain-mint.

Cluster analysis of 129 sites separated the grasslands into four compositionally distinct groups, with the overall group difference supported by PERMANOVA at P < 0.001 and R² = 0.19. Northern Prairie included 36 sites, Central Prairie 50, Savanna/Woodland 32 and Wet Grassland 11. Average species richness per 100-square-metre plot was 61.22 ± 2.18 for Northern Prairie, 67.49 ± 2.07 for Central Prairie, 74.25 ± 3.56 for Savanna/Woodland and 67.55 ± 4.65 for Wet Grassland, where values are mean ± standard error.

Indicator species further distinguished the groups. Indiangrass, Bush’s sedge and early bluegrass were among the five strongest indicators for Northern Prairie, while blue sedge, Elliott’s bluestem and splitbeard bluestem characterized Central Prairie. Savanna/Woodland had the highest average woody cover, 0.30 ± 0.02, and included pignut hickory, black cherry and black oak among its leading indicators. Wet Grassland was marked by wet-soil-associated plants, including common boneset, branched panicgrass, common rush, shallow sedge and arrowleaf tearthumb.

A three-axis non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination separated the communities along several measured environmental gradients. Northern Prairie was associated with higher soil manganese content. Savanna/Woodland was associated with higher soil organic matter, elevation and woody cover, as well as steeper slopes and upland topographic positions. Wet Grassland was associated with higher soil iron and graminoid cover and occupied low-lying positions. Central Prairie had intermediate species composition relative to the other groups. The ordination had a stress value of 0.16, a non-metric fit R² of 0.98 and a linear fit R² of 0.87.

The findings remain bounded by the study design. The researchers deliberately sampled the highest-quality fragments they could find, many of which were powerline corridors, old fields and roadside rights-of-way, rather than a representative sample of all Piedmont grasslands. Actively hayed, grazed and planted sites were excluded, and the origins and antiquity of many fragments could not be determined. Three statistical outliers were excluded from multivariate analyses, while 19 sites with missing environmental data were omitted from related analyses. The authors also reported observed losses during the study, including a rare stiff goldenrod population sprayed with herbicide and a Torrey’s mountain-mint population eliminated by sidewalk construction.

Overall, the study identifies at least four broad community groups within the surveyed northern and central Virginia Piedmont and provides measurable floristic and environmental distinctions that can inform future formal vegetation descriptions, conservation and restoration. The researchers described these as provisional groups for a region whose native grasslands remain understudied, fragmented and poorly protected, and said the full Piedmont would require additional survey and documentation.

Subject of Research: Floristic diversity and community types in selected northern and central Virginia Piedmont grasslands

Article Title: Floristics of Virginia’s Northern and Central Piedmont grasslands

Article References: Coscia, J. T., Harris, J. B. C., Floyd, D., Beall, M. C., Bellangue, D., Chaney, D., Gorrell, J., Sackett, E., Staengl, E. J., & Reid, J. L. (2024). Floristics of Virginia’s Northern and Central Piedmont grasslands. Vegetation Classification and Survey, 5, 267-278. https://doi.org/10.3897/vcs.126066

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/VCS.126066

Keywords: Virginia Piedmont, native grasslands, floristic diversity, vegetation classification, plant communities, soil ecology, rare plants, habitat conservation, field survey, Floristics, Virginia, Northern

This was a countrywide floristic and taxonomic review rather than a controlled biological experiment. The researchers sought to expand knowledge of morphology and distribution, address taxonomic issues through type identification, and provide a taxonomic treatment of Adonis in Kazakhstan with descriptions and illustrations. The revision covered the genus within the country and did not directly measure abundance trends across Kazakhstan.

Occurrence information came from field surveys conducted from 2020 through 2025, published literature, herbarium collections at AA, KG, KSPI, KUZ, LE, MW and NUR, and records from iNaturalist and Plantarium. The authors also examined material at Kazakh National University. Approximately 12 specimens collected during fieldwork were deposited at NUR, and distribution maps were compiled in ArcGIS 10.3.

Regional conservation status was evaluated under criterion B of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s national Red List guidelines. The researchers estimated extent of occurrence and area of occupancy with the GeoCAT tool, using a user-defined grid cell size of 2 km² for the area of occupancy calculation, following the 2024 IUCN guidance cited in the study. These were range-based assessments informed by occurrence data, rather than model-based predictions of population trends.

The revision recognized Adonis apennina, A. chrysocyathus, A. tianschanica, A. vernalis, A. villosa, A. volgensis and A. aestivalis. The last species was represented by two subspecies: A. aestivalis subsp. aestivalis and A. aestivalis subsp. parviflora. Taxonomic richness was highest in the Altai and Trans-Ili Kungey Alatau floristic regions, each with four taxa. Three species occurred in both the Betpak-Dala and Dzungarian Alatau, while the remaining regions contained one or two taxa.

Among the seven taxa receiving conservation assessments, one was categorized as endangered, two as vulnerable, two as near threatened and two as least concern. Adonis chrysocyathus was assessed as endangered under EN B2a(ii), with an estimated extent of occurrence of 7,271 km² and area of occupancy of 32 km². Adonis apennina and A. villosa were assessed as vulnerable under VU B2a(ii); their estimated extents of occurrence were 62,605 km² and 21,204 km², while their areas of occupancy were 84 km² and 32 km², respectively.

Adonis tianschanica and A. vernalis were assessed as near threatened. The corresponding extent-of-occurrence and area-of-occupancy estimates were 32,636 km² and 64 km² for A. tianschanica, and 685,654 km² and 120 km² for A. vernalis. Adonis volgensis and A. aestivalis subsp. parviflora were assessed as least concern, with estimated extents of occurrence of 1,405,740 km² and 2,210,152 km² and areas of occupancy of 844 km² and 476 km², respectively. The status of A. aestivalis subsp. aestivalis was not assessed because the study treated this subspecies as non-native in Central Asia.

The taxonomic treatment included descriptions, illustrations, distribution information, habitat notes, phenology and chromosome counts for the recognized taxa. Diagnostic characters included annual or perennial growth form, leaf division and pubescence, flower size and color, pedicel position, and the form and surface of the achenes. The authors designated a lectotype for A. chrysocyathus from a Kew specimen collected by Falconer in Kashmir on 16 July 1838. They treated A. sibirica as a synonym of A. apennina because of overlapping morphology, and concluded that a reported A. villosa occurrence in the Tobol-Ishim floristic region was based on a misidentified specimen.

The proposed Red Data Book changes followed the revision’s taxonomic and geographic findings. Adonis apennina was not among the five species previously included in the Red Data Book and was recommended for inclusion. Adonis volgensis was already listed under category III, but the authors recommended its exclusion because of its wide distribution and high frequency of occurrence. A. chrysocyathus and A. tianschanica remained under category III, while A. vernalis and A. villosa remained under category II. Overall, the work provides an updated identification framework, mapped distributions and regional conservation assessments for seven of the eight recognized Adonis taxa in Kazakhstan, with its conclusions bounded by the scope and data available for this countrywide taxonomic review.

Subject of Research: Taxonomy, distribution and regional conservation status of Adonis species in Kazakhstan

Article Title: A taxonomic revision of Adonis ( Ranunculaceae ) in Kazakhstan

Article References: Kubentayev, S., Baasanmunkh, S., Alibekov, D., Son, D. C., Tsegmed, Z., Myrzagaliyeva, A., Zhumagul, M., Rustemova, A., Mukhtubayeva, S., Kubentayeva, B., & Choi, H. J. (2025). A taxonomic revision of Adonis (Ranunculaceae) in Kazakhstan. Italian Botanist, 20, 45-76. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.20.159425

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.20.159425

Keywords: Adonis, Ranunculaceae, taxonomic revision, plant taxonomy, Kazakhstan, floristics, species distribution, conservation status, Red Data Book, botanical collections, taxonomic, revision

The Cerbaie cover roughly 114 square kilometers across the territories of seven municipalities in the provinces of Florence, Pisa and Lucca. Geologically, they consist of Pliocene and Pleistocene sedimentary rocks and sediments that give rise to acidic, siliceous soils, an unusual substrate in a part of Tuscany where calcareous materials often dominate. The climate is temperate and distinctly continental, with mean annual precipitation between 950 and 1,100 millimeters concentrated in autumn and spring, and a degree of summer aridity that peaks in July. This combination of acidic soils, abundant streams and small valleys, known locally as vallini, and a temperate climate has created a mosaic of habitats in which mesophilous, hygrophilous and thermophilous species can grow within meters of one another, a juxtaposition that is rare in the lowland Mediterranean landscape.

Compiling the inventory required the researchers to reconcile a long and fragmented history of botanical exploration. The first records for the hills date back to the mid-nineteenth century with the pioneering work of Piero Caruel, followed by the substantial contributions of Sandri and Fantozzi in 1895 and the first dedicated floristic study by Giuseppina Di Moisè in 1959. The team extracted every occurrence record from these historical sources, cross-checked them against modern nomenclature using the Portal to the Flora of Italy, and supplemented the literature data with observations from the crowdsourced portal Wikiplantbase #Toscana and their own extensive field expeditions. To gauge whether the hills were truly exceptional, they applied a predictive framework based on species-area relationships adjusted by environmental modeling, which estimated an expected richness of 1,021 species and subspecies for an area of this size and character.

The observed count of 1,107 taxa exceeded that prediction by eight percent, a margin the authors interpret as evidence of genuinely high floristic richness compared with other Tuscan territories. Three families dominate the spectrum: the daisies of Asteraceae with 126 taxa, the legumes of Fabaceae with 112, and the grasses of Poaceae with 96, together accounting for roughly thirty percent of the flora. Sedges, too, are remarkably well represented with 53 taxa, reflecting the importance of wet habitats. Among genera, Trifolium leads with 35 species, followed by Carex with 20 and Lathyrus with 17. The life-form spectrum is dominated by hemicryptophytes at 35.2 percent and therophytes at 32.2 percent, with geophytes contributing another 15.1 percent, a profile typical of temperate rather than strictly Mediterranean floras.

Perhaps the most striking biogeographical signal comes from the chorological analysis. Despite the hills’ low elevation, fully 32.5 percent of the flora shows Eurosiberian affinities, with a further 25.5 percent transitional between Eurosiberian and Mediterranean regions, while purely Mediterranean elements make up only 15.4 percent. This marked northern signature mirrors the temperate, continental climate of the area and echoes the vegetation of the preapenninic acidophilous durmast oak woods that clothe much of the territory. Several species reinforce this pattern dramatically: the round-leaved sundew, Drosera rotundifolia, a carnivorous plant of acidic bogs, persists here at the southern edge of its European range, while species such as white birch, white hellebore and Asphodelus macrocarpus, which normally grow at considerably higher elevations, find refuge on these low acidic slopes.

The survey also delivered discoveries of direct taxonomic significance. Two taxa, the sedge Carex oedipostyla and Thalictrum simplex subsp. galioides, a meadow-rue, are recorded for the first time in Tuscany, and in both cases the Cerbaie currently represent their only known regional locality. A further 330 taxa are new records for the study area itself. At the other end of the ledger, the team confirmed 344 previously reported taxa during field surveys, judged 47 unconfirmed but reliable, classified 19 as doubtfully present, and identified three as wrongly reported in the literature. Three species, Lysimachia tenella, Menyanthes trifoliata and Potentilla alba, were not rediscovered and may now be locally extinct, a quiet warning about the vulnerability of the wetland habitats they once occupied.

Endemism adds another layer of value. Thirteen Italian endemic taxa occur in the hills, including the Etruscan star-of-Bethlehem Ornithogalum etruscum in both its subspecies, several narrowly distributed orchids of the genus Ophrys, and the endemic subspecies Polygala vulgaris subsp. valdarnensis, originally described from this very area. A dandelion microspecies, Taraxacum cerbariense, is putatively a narrow endemic confined to the Cerbaie themselves. In total, 44 taxa of conservation interest are present, among them six species listed as Endangered at the national level, including Baldellia ranunculoides, the water-violet Hottonia palustris and Exaculum pusillum, a tiny gentian that in Tuscany now survives only here, alongside the marsh gentian Gentiana pneumonanthe.

The shadow hanging over this richness is the alien flora. One hundred naturalized non-native taxa grow in the hills, about nine percent of the established flora, and this figure exceeds the model-based expectation by a remarkable 53 percent. Among them is the tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima, one of the handful of invasive species listed under European Union Regulation 2019/1262, while the North American black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia, is spreading through the woods alongside maritime pine. The authors note that surrounding territories can fare even worse, with the municipality of Empoli showing alien richness more than 200 percent above expectation, but the trend at Cerbaie is unambiguous and tracks the intensification of land use across the Tuscan lowlands.

For the researchers, the message of the inventory is twofold. Scientifically, the Cerbaie hills demonstrate that exceptional biodiversity does not require mountains; a combination of acidic substrates, humid microclimates and biogeographical position at the meeting point of Mediterranean and Eurosiberian zones can generate a flora comparable to that of far more celebrated landscapes. Practically, the hills are already designated a Special Area for Conservation under the European Union’s Habitats Directive, and the new data, with their explicit lists of confirmed, doubtful, extinct and threatened taxa, provide the evidence base needed to target management. As the authors conclude, thanks to its rich and diversified flora, the Cerbaie hills stand out as one of the sites of highest phytogeographical and conservation interest in Tuscany, a status that now rests on verified, up-to-date data rather than on a scattered century and a half of records.

Subject of Research: Updated floristic inventory of the vascular flora of the Cerbaie hills in Tuscany, Italy

Article Title: An updated inventory of the vascular flora of the Cerbaie hills (Tuscany, Italy)

Article References: Gestri, G., Pierini, B., D’Antraccoli, M., Bernardini, A., & Peruzzi, L. (2023). An updated inventory of the vascular flora of the Cerbaie hills (Tuscany, Italy). Italian Botanist, 15, 165-175. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.15.105302

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.15.105302

Keywords: floristics, biodiversity, Tuscany, Cerbaie hills, vascular plants, alien species, conservation, biogeography, species-area relationship, endemic plants, updated, inventory

The expedition brought together eighteen active participants, along with six guests, drawn from universities and research institutions across Italy. Between 19 and 22 April 2022, the team traversed five carefully planned routes: three covering the southern, western and northern sectors of Lipari, one crossing the southern part of Panarea, and a final circuit through the main village of Lipari and its surroundings. The routes were designed to maximize environmental heterogeneity among sampling sites, to target areas with scarce floristic records, and to include localities of recognized naturalistic value. Habitats encountered ranged from dry stone walls and roadside verges to maquis scrub, garrigue, sea cliffs, beaches, abandoned agricultural terraces and ornamental plantings around settlements.

In total, the participants prepared 1,664 herbarium specimens, each pressed, dried and labelled for long-term preservation in public and private herbaria. Every collector drafted an individual list of the species they had gathered, and the coordinator of the working group later merged these lists and convened a workshop at the Herbarium Mediterraneum Panormitanum of the University of Palermo in February 2023 to revise critical collections and resolve unidentified specimens. The resulting inventory comprises 386 specific and subspecific taxa belonging to 241 genera and 74 families. Taxonomic nomenclature follows the updated checklists of the vascular flora native and alien to Italy, together with subsequent updates compiled in the Portal to the Flora of Italy.

Perhaps the most striking result concerns the alien species. Of the 386 taxa recorded, 48, or 12.4 percent, are not native to the region: 20 are casual, 26 naturalized and two invasive. The invasive pair, Ailanthus altissima, the tree of heaven, and Oxalis pes-caprae, the Bermuda buttercup, are notorious invaders elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Among the aliens, one discovery stands out: Oenothera odorata, an evening primrose native to South America, is here recorded as a naturalized species new to the entire Italian vascular flora. The Lipari population had previously been misidentified as Oenothera stricta subsp. stricta in records dating back to 2008. Careful morphological study of the newly collected specimens, following the standard taxonomic treatment of the genus and confirmed by direct comparison with original material of both species, established the correct identity. The authors note that other Italian records currently attributed to Oenothera stricta subsp. stricta also require verification, suggesting that this South American plant may be more widespread in Italy than previously thought.

Four additional aliens were recorded for the first time in Sicily. Dimorphotheca ecklonis, an ornamental daisy from South Africa, Nassella tenuissima, a fine-leaved Argentinian grass popular in gardens, Solanum torvum, a spiny shrub known as turkey berry, and Viola wittrockiana, the familiar garden pansy, all turned up during the survey. The finding of Nassella tenuissima carries particular concern: the grass was recently planted as an ornamental near a winery on Lipari and is already spreading into surrounding areas, probably through wind dispersal of its seeds. The researchers strongly recommend its removal before it becomes naturalized on the island, a cautionary example of how horticultural choices can seed future invasions on ecologically fragile islands.

The survey also documented the escape of other ornamental plantings. Phyllostachys aurea, golden bamboo, is being maintained as a living fence around a villa on Panarea and has begun reproducing vegetatively beyond its intended bounds, sending up new shoots in the surrounding area. Such observations illustrate a recurring theme of the study: the ornamental trade and gardening practices around settlements act as a continuous pipeline of potential invaders onto these small islands, where native communities have evolved in isolation and often lack defences against vigorous newcomers.

Against this wave of aliens, the native endemic flora of the two islands proved remarkably limited in the sampled area. Only three Italian endemics were found: Centaurea aeolica, a knapweed exclusive to the Aeolian archipelago, Helichrysum litoreum, a curry-scented everlasting also present in other Tyrrhenian Italian regions, and Dianthus rupicola subsp. aeolicus, a cliff-dwelling pink that also occurs on the promontory of Capo Milazzo in northeastern Sicily. Both the helichrysum and the pink are listed as Least Concern in the Red List of the Italian endemic flora. Centaurea aeolica is the only one of the three restricted entirely to the Aeolian Islands, a reminder of how narrowly some endemics are distributed and how easily a single localized disturbance could erase them. The researchers emphasize that small Mediterranean islands are biodiversity hotspots harbouring rare habitats and endemic species, making the spread of invasive species a particularly serious environmental threat there.

Not every significant find involved an alien. The survey relocated Wahlenbergia lobeliodes subsp. nutabunda on Panarea at Costa del Capraro, roughly 120 years after it was last recorded there by the pioneering botanist Michele Lojacono-Pojero in 1903, and about 40 years after a later record from Cala dei Zimmari. This ephemeral plant, which also occurs in Sardinia and Calabria, has a very short vegetative cycle, making it easy to overlook and rarely reported. Equally notable was Serapias nurrica subsp. nurrica, an orchid absent from earlier published sources for the islands, found on Panarea within old abandoned agricultural terraces and on wasteland in the southern and western parts of Lipari. Gamochaeta pensylvanica, a North American neophyte first collected in Italy in 1980 and in Sicily in 2015, was also recorded, apparently introduced as a contaminant by plant nurseries and steadily expanding its range.

The choice of Lipari and Panarea reflects a deliberate strategy. The Italian Botanical Society’s working group has spent two decades organizing floristic excursions to poorly explored corners of the country, selecting territories based on gaps in floristic knowledge. Although botanists have visited the Aeolian Islands since the first half of the nineteenth century, beginning with Giovanni Gussone’s landmark floras of Sicily in the 1820s through the 1840s, followed by Lojacono-Pojero in 1877 and 1902 and Giuseppe Zodda in 1902, complete and updated floristic lists for Lipari and Panarea have never been published. Gioachino Ferro of the University of Catania devoted much of his career to the archipelago’s flora, but his death halted publication of his synthesis. Before this survey, the Wikiplantbase #Sicilia database held only 262 records for Lipari and just 107 for Panarea.

Both islands are quiescent volcanoes shaped by fire and by centuries of human activity. Lipari, the largest of the Aeolian Islands at 37.2 square kilometres and reaching 594 metres on Mount Sant’Angelo, is built of varied volcanic formations producing ever-shifting regosols and lithosols, and more than 660 taxa have been documented for it, 14 percent of them alien to Italy. Panarea, far smaller at 3.3 square kilometres and 420 metres at its peak, is composed of andesitic to dacitic and rhyolitic rocks, with weak hydrothermal activity on Lipari’s western side and active submarine fumaroles about 2.5 kilometres off its coast. Human presence dates back to the fifth millennium before present, and Greek and Roman colonization brought the first profound landscape changes; until the early twentieth century most of the islands’ surface was cultivated. Today agriculture covers only about 15 percent of Lipari and 5 percent of Panarea, and abandoned fields are being recolonized by natural vegetation, including Erica arborea and Arbutus unedo maquis, Cistus and Genista tyrrhena garrigues, and grasslands. The new inventory provides the baseline that conservationists and island managers need to track these changes, to catch invasive species before they take hold, and to protect the endemic plants that exist nowhere else.

Subject of Research: Floristic inventory of the volcanic islands Lipari and Panarea in the Aeolian archipelago, Sicily

Article Title: Contribution to the floristic knowledge of Lipari and Panarea Islands (Sicilia, Italy)

Article References: Barone, G., Bajona, E., Bartolucci, F., Cancellieri, L., Caruso, G., Conti, F., Domina, G., Fascetti, S., Franzoni, J., Laface, V. L. A., Pinzani, L., Rosati, L., Scoppola, A., Stinca, A., Tilia, A., & Crisafulli, A. (2023). Contribution to the floristic knowledge of Lipari and Panarea Islands (Sicilia, Italy). Italian Botanist, 16, 59-71. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.16.113415

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.16.113415

Keywords: floristics, Aeolian Islands, Lipari, Panarea, alien species, endemic plants, herbarium specimens, biodiversity, invasive species, Sicily, Mediterranean flora, Oenothera odorata

The notula format that underpins this series is a deliberately compact one. Each contribution is capped at roughly a thousand characters, and every claim about a new record or a status change must be anchored to a physical specimen. That specimen, together with a scan or photograph, is deposited at the FI Herbarium housed in the Museum of Natural History’s botany section in Florence, a requirement that turns each short note into a verifiable, citable unit of distributional knowledge. The practice reflects a long tradition in Mediterranean botany, where herbarium vouchers rather than field photographs alone remain the gold standard for documenting the presence of a species in a given territory. It also explains why the notulae appear in instalments rather than as a single monograph: the editors, coordinating records through botanists based in Florence and Milan, aggregate small observations from across the peninsula until they accumulate into a meaningful picture of change.

The distinction between a casual and a naturalized alien species, which recurs throughout the sixteenth instalment, is central to how invasion biologists interpret these records. A casual alien is one that appears sporadically, usually as a consequence of recent introduction, and that persists only through repeated arrivals of new propagules. A naturalized alien, by contrast, has demonstrated the ability to reproduce without human assistance and to sustain self-perpetuating populations over successive generations. The transition between the two categories is not merely semantic. It signals that a species has crossed a reproductive threshold, and it often precedes the further step to invasiveness, in which spread becomes rapid and ecological impacts measurable. Status changes therefore carry practical weight, informing risk assessments, regional watchlists, and the prioritization of management actions by environmental authorities.

Several of the status changes documented in this instalment illustrate how quickly that threshold can be crossed when a species finds suitable conditions. The madagascar rubber vine relative Anredera cordifolia, recorded in Abruzzo along roadsides near Chieti, had been known in the region only as a casual alien, but field surveys in 2022 and 2023 revealed three stable nuclei within a kilometre of one another, each expanding and gradually displacing native vegetation. Its capacity for vegetative propagation through aerial tubers makes it a particularly effective colonizer of ruderal habitats, where disturbance continually opens new ground. Similarly, the ornamental succulent hybrid Kalanchoë × houghtonii in Sardinia has shifted from casual to naturalized status, a change attributed to its remarkable ability to reproduce from leaf propagules that root readily on road margins and other disturbed sites. These examples underline a recurring pattern in Mediterranean invasion ecology: species that combine ornamental popularity with efficient clonal reproduction are disproportionately represented among recent naturalizations.

Urban environments emerge from the records as significant staging grounds for alien establishment. The box elder, Acer negundo, a North American maple long used as a street tree, has now been confirmed as naturalized in Sicily, with young individuals germinating in the cracks of Palermo’s sidewalks and additional plants scattered through residential streets. The finding is notable because Sicily’s warm, dry climate might be expected to limit a species associated with temperate riparian forests, yet urban irrigation, shaded pavements, and the mosaic of microhabitats in a Mediterranean city can collectively mimic the conditions it needs. In Milan, the story of Celtis occidentalis is even more striking. Within a cemetery decommissioned and abandoned in the 1960s, this North American hackberry has formed an uneven-aged stand of roughly four thousand two hundred square metres, with trees regularly fruiting. The site functions as a natural experiment in spontaneous forest succession on urban land, demonstrating how decades of neglect can allow an introduced tree to rebuild an entire stand structure without any planting.

Ornamental horticulture remains the dominant pathway of introduction visible in these records. The majority of the species reported, from the ferny foliage of Gazania rigens on a seaside promenade in Marche to the winter-flowering jasmine Jasminum nudiflorum escaping beneath a castle in the Florentine hills, were originally planted for decoration. The pattern is consistent with global analyses showing that ornamental trade is the single largest source of naturalized plants in temperate regions. What the notulae add is geographic resolution: they show that escape from cultivation is happening not only in major cities but in small towns, along rural roads, and even within protected landscapes. The bamboo Phyllostachys aureus, newly confirmed as naturalized in Sardinia, exemplifies how long a misidentification can obscure the true picture. Populations across several Sardinian regions had been attributed for years to a different bamboo, and only recent surveys revealed that the widespread plant was in fact the running bamboo Phyllostachys aurea, a species notorious elsewhere for its aggressive rhizomatous spread.

Not all introductions are ornamental. The white lupin, Lupinus albus subsp. albus, a crop species cultivated for millennia in the Mediterranean basin, has been upgraded from casual to naturalized in Sicily, where stable populations now persist in the lowland belt of the Madonie mountains despite the fact that the plant has not been commonly grown there for more than three decades. Its persistence suggests feral populations that no longer depend on agricultural sowing, an outcome that raises interesting questions about the persistence of crop gene pools outside cultivation. Tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, appears as a single individual near a dry channel in Abruzzo, almost certainly a remnant or seedling from past cultivation in a landscape where the crop was once widespread. Such single-plant records are biologically fragile, but they document the continuing rain of propagules from historical and current human activity.

Some records hint at more unexpected dispersal routes. The prickly Alternanthera pungens, found spontaneously flowering in a meadow near Cagliari among Washingtonia palms, was probably introduced accidentally with garden soil, a pathway that is notoriously difficult to monitor because contaminated soil moves with landscaping, construction, and nursery trade. The smooth cypress relative Hesperocyparis glabra, observed regenerating in an artificial conifer plantation on the hills above Turin, represents a different kind of establishment: the plantation itself, dating from the 1920s as a memorial park, has become a source population from which young trees now recruit naturally among the alien conifers. This illustrates how historical plantings, even those made for commemorative rather than ornamental reasons, can seed long-term ecological change.

Fire and disturbance also feature in the background of several records. The Cryptomeria japonica saplings found in a burnt pine plantation in Calabria germinated from seeds of mature ornamental trees nearby, suggesting that fire, by opening the canopy and preparing a seedbed, can facilitate the recruitment of alien species that were previously only present in gardens. The tobacco record in Abruzzo likewise sits within a pine stand affected by a recent fire. These observations align with a growing body of evidence that disturbance regimes, whether from fire, flooding, or construction, create windows of opportunity during which alien species can move from casual presence to genuine establishment.

Geographically, the instalment spans the full latitudinal and climatic range of the country, from alpine Trentino to the shores of Sicily and Sardinia. The appearance of Mazus pumilus, a small creeping herb of East Asian origin, in parking lots and public squares across Trentino shows how a species can spread locally through a network of human-made habitats, each site functioning as a stepping stone. The presence of Lonicera fragrantissima in a riparian woodland in Lombardy, represented by only two individuals, is a reminder that many casual records never progress further, and that distinguishing between transient escape and genuine establishment requires repeated observation over years. The notulae series, by accumulating such observations annually, provides exactly the temporal depth needed to make those distinctions with confidence, and it is this cumulative, specimen-backed, region-by-region accounting that makes the Italian alien flora one of the best-documented in Europe.

Subject of Research: New records and status changes of alien vascular plant species in the Italian flora

Article Title: Notulae to the Italian alien vascular flora: 16

Article References: Galasso, G., Domina, G., Adorni, M., Angiolini, C., Baccheschi, L., Bacchetta, G., Barone, G., Bartolucci, F., Calvia, G., Costantini, S., Cuena-Lombraña, A., De Fine, G., Del Guacchio, E., Di Gristina, E., Fanfarillo, E., Fiaschi, T., Fois, M., Laface, V. L. A., Lallai, A., … Lastrucci, L. (2023). Notulae to the Italian alien vascular flora: 16. Italian Botanist, 16, 73-87. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.16.115302

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.16.115302

Keywords: alien flora, invasive species, Italy, vascular plants, floristics, biodiversity, naturalization, botany, Sicilia, Sardegna, Notulae, Italian

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

The genus Lysimachia, commonly known as loosestrifes, belongs to the primrose family Primulaceae and comprises roughly 280 species distributed across temperate and tropical Asia, Europe and North America. Members of the genus are typically herbaceous plants, often with yellow, white or reddish flowers, and several species are valued as ornamentals. Northeast India, which forms part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, is home to a rich diversity of Lysimachia, yet the flora of Manipur has remained incompletely documented, with many groups of flowering plants still awaiting systematic survey.

Fieldwork for the study was carried out in Senapati district in the northern part of Manipur, an area of rolling hills, subtropical forest and traditional village lands that lies close to the border with Nagaland. The researchers collected flowering specimens during botanical expeditions, pressed and dried them according to standard herbarium practice, and examined their vegetative and floral characters in detail. Comparative study against herbarium material and published taxonomic literature allowed the team to confirm the identity of each collection and to determine that none of the six species had previously been reported from Manipur.

Among the newly recorded species, Lysimachia candida stands out for its pure white flowers and its preference for wet habitats. The Manipur collections were made from marshy ground and stream banks, where the plant grows as an erect herb with lanceolate leaves and small, star-like blossoms borne on slender stalks. Lysimachia congestiflora, by contrast, is a low-growing species with paired, broadly ovate leaves and dense clusters of golden-yellow flowers, often marked with reddish spots at the base of the petals. This species creeps along the ground of forest margins and shaded paths, forming mats that flower profusely after the monsoon.

Lysimachia deltoidea proved to be one of the more distinctive finds, recognisable by its triangular-ovate leaves and its tall flowering stems that can reach well over a metre in height. The species bears numerous small yellow flowers along elongated racemes and was collected from open slopes and roadside verges. Lysimachia evalvis, a smaller plant with narrowly elliptic leaves and solitary yellow flowers arising from the leaf axils, was found growing among grasses on hill slopes. Lysimachia japonica resembles L. congestiflora in its creeping habit but can be distinguished by subtle differences in leaf shape, hair covering and the structure of its flower clusters, characters that the authors document in a comparative key to aid future identification.

The sixth species, Lysimachia lobelioides, is perhaps the most striking in appearance. It produces tall spikes of deep reddish-purple to maroon flowers and was recorded from shaded forest clearings. The species name refers to its resemblance to plants of the genus Lobelia, and its discovery in Manipur represents a significant range extension within the Indian flora. The authors note that all six species were found growing in habitats shaped by traditional land use, including village forests, fallow fields and the edges of terraced cultivation, underscoring the importance of community-managed landscapes for plant diversity in the region.

To help botanists and field researchers distinguish the newly recorded species from one another and from other Lysimachia known in India, the team constructed a detailed taxonomic key based on floral colour, leaf arrangement, hair type and inflorescence structure. Each species account includes a full morphological description, notes on flowering and fruiting periods, habitat information, geographic distribution and examined specimens. The study also provides photographs of living plants in their natural habitats, along with illustrations of key diagnostic features, making the work a practical reference for future surveys in Manipur and neighbouring states.

The researchers emphasise that their findings likely represent only a fraction of the undocumented plant diversity in Manipur. The state lies at the meeting point of several biogeographic zones, where Himalayan, Indo-Burmese and Chinese floristic elements overlap, and its hilly terrain creates a mosaic of microhabitats that can harbour locally restricted species. Historical under-sampling, difficult terrain and limited herbarium coverage have all contributed to gaps in knowledge, and the authors call for continued systematic exploration of remote areas, particularly during the flowering season when identification is most reliable.

Beyond its taxonomic significance, the study highlights the potential value of Lysimachia species for horticulture and local livelihoods. Several loosestrifes are grown internationally as ornamental groundcovers and border plants, and the newly recorded species, with their attractive flowers and adaptability to moist hill habitats, could be candidates for sustainable cultivation. The authors also point to the need for ecological research on the pollinators, seed dispersal and population dynamics of these plants, information that will be essential for assessing their conservation status and for developing evidence-based management plans.

As Northeast India faces mounting pressures from infrastructure development, shifting cultivation and climate change, documenting the region’s flora has become an increasingly urgent task. The six new state records from Manipur add to a growing body of work showing that even well-studied plant groups continue to yield surprises in the Eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma regions. The researchers hope that their detailed species accounts and identification tools will encourage both professional botanists and citizen scientists to survey more widely, ensuring that Manipur’s botanical heritage is recorded, understood and conserved before it is lost.

Subject of Research: First records of six Lysimachia species in the flora of Manipur, Northeast India

Article Title: New records of Lysimachia (Primulaceae) to the flora of Manipur, Northeast India

Article References: Eshuo, K., Kashung, S., Lokho, K., Mero, P.-Ü., Kaini, K., Maheo, R. S., Gangmei, K., Kashung, G., Leishilembi, U., & Rupa, T. (2026). New records of Lysimachia (Primulaceae) to the flora of Manipur, Northeast India. Discover Plants, 3(1), 470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44372-026-00960-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44372-026-00960-y

Keywords: Lysimachia, Primulaceae, Manipur, Northeast India, new records, taxonomy, floristics, biodiversity, Senapati district, plant conservation, records, flora

Myristicaceae is the second largest family in the order Magnoliales, encompassing around 500 species in 21 genera distributed across the tropics of Africa, Asia and the Americas. In the American continent, six genera and roughly 110 species occur, and the Amazon rainforest alone harbours about 65 of them. What makes the family remarkable is its hyperdominance: 29 Amazonian species from five genera — nearly 45 percent of the species recorded in the region — have been registered as hyperdominant, meaning they dominate forest structure and dynamics despite the family accounting for only about one percent of Amazonian tree species diversity. The genera Iryanthera, with 13 hyperdominant species, and Virola, with 11, are the standouts.

The research team compiled 2,642 raw records from online databases including GBIF, speciesLink, Reflora and JABOT, then rigorously curated them down to 405 verified occurrence records. Every geographic coordinate was checked individually against Google Earth imagery and compared with the locality descriptions on specimen labels. When coordinates were missing or erroneous, the researchers inferred them using the geoLoc tool, which searches registered collections in speciesLink by locality. Misidentified specimens, duplicates and records wrongly attributed to Myristicaceae or to other states were discarded, leaving a dataset of unusual reliability for a region where herbarium records are often messy.

The five genera recorded in Acre are Compsoneura, Iryanthera, Osteophloeum, Otoba and Virola. The best documented species are Iryanthera juruensis with 75 specimens, Virola elongata with 48, V. sebifera with 35, Otoba parvifolia with 32 and V. calophylla with 25. All five are widely distributed across the state and have been collected in every decade since the 1970s. At the other extreme, 13 species have fewer than five records, and four — Iryanthera olacoides, I. tricornis, Virola marleneae and V. rugulosa — are represented by a single specimen each, underscoring how much sampling remains to be done.

One of the most striking patterns to emerge concerns the state’s two great watersheds. Acre is drained by the Juruá Basin in the west and the Purus Basin in the east, and the species split sharply between them: 16 species occur throughout the state, while 18 are restricted to just one of the two basins. Of these restricted species, 16 are confined to the Juruá Basin and only two to the Purus Basin. This watershed-linked pattern has been documented before for birds and for vines and lianas, but the new data suggest it may extend to trees and treelets as well — a finding with significant implications for how biodiversity is distributed across Amazonian landscapes.

The collection history embedded in the dataset reads like a chronicle of Amazonian botany itself. The first Myristicaceae specimen from Acre was gathered during Ernst Ule’s pioneering expedition and is now cited as the type of Iryanthera ulei, preserved in multiple herbaria across Europe and the Americas. Before 1950, only three collectors had worked on the family in the state: Ule, Boris Krukoff and Adolpho Ducke, the latter of whom studied Amazonian flora for nearly 60 years. The period from 1966 to 1987 brought large collaborative projects such as Projeto RADAMBRASIL and Projeto Flora Amazônica, which contributed 125 treated collections.

The 1990s produced the single richest decade, with 144 records, driven by the partnership between the Universidade Federal do Acre and the New York Botanical Garden for the Floristics and Economic Botany of Acre project. That collaboration grew the UFACPZ herbarium from roughly 5,000 collections to 30,000 in under 20 years. In the 2020s, collection numbers rose again thanks to a scientific expedition under the Monitora Programme of the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade, which visited the Parque Nacional da Serra do Divisor on the Peruvian border, and to a dedicated flora study of the family in the state.

Because most Myristicaceae species are dioecious — bearing male and female flowers on separate plants — individual specimens typically carry either an inflorescence or an infructescence, rarely both. Among the 405 curated records, the researchers counted 135 staminate inflorescences against just 20 pistillate ones, a ratio of roughly 7:1 that mirrors the male-biased flowering patterns documented in ecological studies of the family elsewhere. Yet fruiting specimens outnumbered flowering ones, 214 to 160, showing that despite the skewed inflorescence ratio, female flowers were being successfully pollinated across the landscape.

Phenological patterns also emerged from the temporal data. Specimens were collected in every month of the year, with flowering peaks in May and fruiting peaks in October. This aligns with earlier phenological studies of Osteophloeum platyspermum and Virola michelii, which found that flowering tends to occur just before the wet season, during the transitional period between dry and wet phases, while fruiting peaks during the wet season itself. The suggestion is that flowers may be favoured by lower rainfall, while fruits benefit from the abundance of water.

The spatial distribution of the collections themselves reveals the persistent challenge of Amazonian fieldwork. Nearly half of all records come from roadsides, riverbanks or urban peripheries — places that are simply easier to reach — while only 115 specimens were collected inside Conservation Units and 16 within Indigenous Territories. Large municipalities often yielded fewer records than smaller ones, a spatial bias that reflects accessibility rather than true species richness. The authors argue that continued investment in research and conservation is already paying dividends: in just the first three years of the 2020s, more Myristicaceae collections were made than in the entire previous decade, and species not collected for over a decade were rediscovered. The curated dataset, freely available online, is designed to guide future targeted sampling and to sharpen understanding of how watershed boundaries shape the distribution of life in the world’s largest rainforest.

Subject of Research: Diversity and distribution of Myristicaceae tree species in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Acre

Article Title: Diversity and distribution of Myristicaceae in the Amazonian State of Acre, Brazil

Article References: Lopes, I., Medeiros, H., & Forzza, R. (2026). Diversity and distribution of Myristicaceae in the Amazonian State of Acre, Brazil. Biodiversity Data Journal, 14, Article e196523. https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.14.e196523

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.14.e196523

Keywords: Myristicaceae, Acre, Brazilian Amazon, biodiversity, watershed distribution, hyperdominance, Virola, Iryanthera, herbarium records, dioecy, Amazon deforestation, floristics

The historical trajectory of Chenopodiaceae research in Bulgaria begins in the late nineteenth century, when pioneering botanists including Bornmüller, Georgiev, Yavashev, Toshev and Urumov published the first distribution records. These scattered observations were consolidated by Velenovský in his two editions of Flora bulgarica. The first edition, published in 1891, listed 28 Chenopodiaceae species belonging to 9 genera, including 12 species of Chenopodium, 4 of Atriplex, 4 of Kochia, 2 of Camphorosma and 2 of Suaeda. The second edition of 1898 added new distribution data, bringing the total number of species reported for Bulgaria in the nineteenth century to 32. These early accounts established the foundation for all subsequent floristic work in the country and documented the presence of familiar species such as Chenopodium album, C. rubrum, C. glaucum and C. murale, alongside halophytic representatives like Salicornia herbacea and Salsola kali.

The twentieth century witnessed a steady expansion of knowledge about the Bulgarian Chenopodiaceae. In the first two decades, the main sources of information were the prolific works of Urumov, Kovachev, Davidov, Neichev, Petkov, Stranski and Yordanov. This accumulated chorological data was summarized in the first edition of Flora of Bulgaria in 1924, where the family was presented by 44 species and 13 genera. The second edition of 1933 reported 39 species, with five species removed from the first edition, including Camphorosma ruthenicum and Corispermum canescens. The third edition of 1948 listed 41 species and added two new species to the Bulgarian flora: Chenopodium opulifolium, mentioned as a widely spread ruderal plant, and Corispermum hyssopifolium, discovered on the sands of Danubian islands in the Belene group. The fourth edition of 1966 introduced one new genus and species for Bulgaria, Ceratocarpus arenarius.

The most exhaustive treatment of the family came with Yordanov and colleagues in Flora of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, which reported a total of 48 Chenopodiaceae species belonging to 15 genera. This monumental work included 4 cultivated species—Atriplex hortensis, Spinacia oleracea, Beta vulgaris and Kochia scoparia—and documented Chenopodium ambrosioides as a new species for the country, reported for the first time from the sands near Varna and the experimental field in Ovcha Kupel. Subsequent floristic reports throughout the 1970s and 1980s supplemented this data. The Field Guide to the vascular plants in Bulgaria of 1992 represented the family by 48 species across 14 genera, noting that the distribution of Bassia sedoides had not been confirmed and adding new records including Chenopodium chenopodioides from the Northern Black Sea coast and two new Atriplex species, A. micrantha and A. halimus.

The new millennium brought further refinements and discoveries. Delipavlov and Cheshmedzhiev listed 50 species for the family in 2011, while the Conspectus of the Bulgarian vascular flora by Assyov and Petrova registered 50 species across 13 genera, including one new species for the country, Chenopodium schraderianum. Five Chenopodiaceae species are protected by the Biological Diversity Act of 2007: Bassia hirsuta, Halimione pedunculata, H. portulacoides, Petrosimonia brachiata and Suaeda heterophylla. The Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria includes 4 species, with B. hirsuta and Corispermum marschalii referred to the IUCN category EN (endangered), whereas P. brachiata and S. heterophylla are assessed as CE (critically endangered). These annual halophyte communities are among the protected natural habitats pursuant to Directive 92/43/EEC and are classified as an endangered habitat in the Red Data Book.

The last decade has seen the genus Chenopodium undergo substantial taxonomic revision driven by molecular phylogenetic studies. Grozeva reported a new species for the country, Chenopodium pumilio, in 2007, and subsequently suggested that C. acuminatum be deleted from the Bulgarian flora as incorrectly identified. Six new species and one subspecies from the genus Chenopodium—C. strictum, C. striatiforme, C. album subsp. pedunculare, C. pratericola, C. probstii and C. missouriense—have been reported for the Bulgarian flora. The fourth edition of the Conspectus of Bulgarian vascular flora in 2012 listed 56 species across 14 genera. The Euro+Med Plant Base reported 53 species and 19 genera for Bulgaria, reflecting the modern circumscription of Chenopodium sensu stricto, which now excludes genera such as Blitum, Chenopodiastrum, Dysphania, Lipandra and Oxybasis that were formerly included within Chenopodium sensu lato. According to the most recent data, the family is represented in Bulgarian flora by 51 species and 2 subspecies.

Morphological studies on Bulgarian Chenopodiaceae have concentrated primarily on Chenopodium sensu lato. Detailed investigations have covered Chenopodium album and Dysphania botrys from 18 populations, Blitum bonus-henricus from 10 populations with ecological notes, C. pratericola, the genus Dysphania, C. probstii and C. missouriense, and Blitum virgatum. Further taxa studied include Bassia hirsuta and Petrosimonia brachiata. These morphological analyses have provided essential baseline data for understanding the variation within and between Bulgarian populations, contributing to more accurate species identification and taxonomic decisions.

Karyological research has been equally productive, beginning with Markova’s 1968 study on Dysphania multifida, which revealed a tetraploid chromosome number of 2n = 36. Subsequent investigations by Kožuharov and Kuzmanov, Cheshmedzhiev, Popova and Ceschmedjiev, and Van Loon and Van Setten established chromosome numbers for additional species. Grozeva and Stoeva published chromosome numbers for the first time for 4 species in 2006, and Grozeva reported first-time chromosome numbers for 8 species in 2007, 7 species in 2010, and additional species in subsequent years. For the members of the family from Bulgarian populations, diploid (2n = 16, 18), tetraploid (2n = 32, 36) and hexaploid (2n = 54) chromosome numbers have been found, with two types of chromosomes—metacentric and submetacentric. Basic chromosome numbers x = 9 and x = 8 have been registered, with diploid species being dominant. According to Petrova and Vladimirov, 80.4% of the Chenopodiaceae species have been studied karyologically, though data remains lacking for Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, Camphorosma annua, C. monspeliaca, Ceratocarpus arenarius, Halimione pedunculata, H. portulacoides, Polycnemum arvense, P. heuffelii, P. majus and Spinacia oleracea from Bulgarian populations.

Phytochemical investigations have revealed an extraordinary chemical arsenal within the Bulgarian Chenopodiaceae. According to the Medicinal Plants Act of 2000, 11 species are considered medicinal plants, including Atriplex rosea, Blitum bonus-henricus, B. virgatum, Camphorosma monspeliaca, Chenopodium album subsp. album, C. vulvaria, Dysphania botrys, Lipandra polysperma, Oxybasis rubra, Salicornia europaea and Salsola tragus. The chenopods contain minerals, primary metabolites such as carbohydrates, amino acids and proteins, as well as secondary metabolites including flavonoids, saponins, terpenes, sterols, alkaloids and vitamins. The aerial parts of Blitum bonus-henricus are a rich source of bioactive compounds, with 36 compounds distinguished, including 22 saponins of 8 sapogenins, 12 flavonoid glycosides and 2 ecdysteroids. The flavonoid and saponin-rich fractions showed in vitro hepatoprotective and antioxidant activity comparable to those of the flavonoid complex silymarin in a model of metabolic bioactivation induced by carbon tetrachloride. Nine flavonol glycosides of patuletin, 6-methoxykaempferol and spinacetin were reported to reduce lipid damage, showed antioxidant, neuroprotective, anti-α-glucosidase and lipase activities, and possessed no toxicity on the HepG2 cell line.

The phytochemical profile of Blitum virgatum is equally impressive, with preliminary screening showing the presence of carbohydrates, flavonoids, phytosterols, saponins and alkaloids. The main secondary metabolites include terpenes such as limonene, α-terpinene, β-phellandrene, carvacrol, thymol, α-pinene, β-pinene, camphor and β-caryophyllene, alongside the oleanane triterpene 30-normedicagenic acid. New flavonol glycosides detected include 6-methoxykaempferol-3-O-β-gentiobioside, gomphrenol-3-O-β-gentiobioside and gomphrenol-3-O-[6-O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)-β-D-glucopyranoside], as well as known compounds patuletin-3-O-β-gentiobioside and spinacetin-3-O-β-gentiobioside. The highest radical-scavenging activity evaluated by DPPH and ABTS methods was shown by patuletin-3-O-β-gentiobioside and 6-methoxykaempferol-3-O-β-gentiobioside, comparable with those of the classic antioxidant ascorbic acid. A newly identified acylated flavonol triglycoside, gomphrenol-3-O-(5”’-O-E-feruloyl)-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1→2)[β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→6)]-β-D-glucopyranoside, demonstrated the ability to reduce damage caused by the hepatotoxic agent carbon tetrachloride and preserve cell viability and glutathione levels. These findings position the Bulgarian Chenopodiaceae as a promising source of safe hepatoprotective agents, with the glycosides of phytolaccagenin, bayogenin and medicagenic acid representing a particularly valuable class of bioactive compounds. The systematic review of this family not only consolidates over a century of botanical research but also illuminates the extraordinary potential of these humble ruderal and halophytic plants for future pharmacological and conservation science.

Subject of Research: A review of taxonomic, chorological, morphological, karyological and phytochemical studies on the Bulgarian members of the family Chenopodiaceae.

Article Title: Studies on the Bulgarian members of the family Chenopodiaceae s. stricto : a review

Article References: Boneva, V. S., & Petkova, N. T. (2022). Studies on the Bulgarian members of the family Chenopodiaceae s. stricto: a review. BioRisk, 18, 17-34. https://doi.org/10.3897/biorisk.18.78548

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/biorisk.18.78548

Keywords: Chenopodiaceae, Bulgaria, taxonomy, halophytes, phytochemistry, karyology, Chenopodium, floristics, Studies, Bulgarian, members, family