The study filled a substantial gap in regional botanical knowledge. Although early floristic records for the lower Sieve Valley date to 1860, only 140 taxa had been reliably referred to the area between 1860 and 2010, including 70 reported before 1950. The new research combined a review of the limited literature with field investigations, herbarium specimens, approximately 3,000 photographs and about 5,000 field observations.

The surveyed area covers 101 km² of the Sieve River basin between Contea and Pontassieve, extending across parts of Pontassieve, Pelago, Rufina and Londa in the province of Florence. Elevations range from 90 to 992 metres above sea level, with distinct valley-floor, hilly and sub-mountainous sectors. The landscape includes urbanized and industrial areas, croplands, vineyards, olive groves, meadows, forests, rocky slopes, rivers, streams and artificial reservoirs. The valley also includes the Chianti Rufina subzone of Chianti Classico DOCG production.

Researchers used Species-Area Relationships developed for Tuscany to estimate expected richness before comparing the predictions with field results. The expected number of species and subspecies was 1,009, compared with 1,034 observed taxa. The correspondence between expected and observed established taxa was 99.3%, indicating that the valley’s floristic richness was close to the model estimate and comparable to other Tuscan areas. Expected alien richness was 89 taxa, whereas the inventory documented 109 established aliens, about 10% of the established flora and 22% above the prediction.

The alien total was proportionally higher than predicted but lower than in nearby areas such as the Cerbaie Hills and the municipality of Empoli. The authors proposed that Populus × canadensis nothosubsp. canadensis should be considered a naturalized alien in Tuscany because it is widespread along the terminal stretch of the Sieve River and competes with native Populus nigra subsp. nigra. Aliens were most numerous in urban and riparian environments, while Arundo donax and Robinia pseudoacacia were among the most widespread along the regional road network.

Three families accounted for 30% of the recorded flora: Asteraceae with 131 taxa, Poaceae with 93 and Fabaceae with 88. The most prominent life forms were hemicryptophytes at 35.1%, therophytes at 30.1% and geophytes at 15.4%. Eurosiberian taxa represented 32.6% of the flora and transitional Eurosiberian-Mediterranean taxa 30.3%, followed by widely distributed taxa at 14.3% and Mediterranean taxa at 13.5%. The authors associated this pattern with the area’s temperate and continental climate, summer aridity and mixture of open habitats.

Twelve Italian endemics were recorded, including Bellevalia webbiana, a narrowly endemic species categorized as Endangered nationally. Newly discovered populations expanded the known range of B. webbiana, whose previously reported area of occupancy was 68 km² and described as gradually decreasing. Of 17 taxa of national conservation interest, 14 were categorized as Least Concern, two as Data Deficient, two as Near Threatened, one as Vulnerable and one as Endangered. Olive groves, fallow grasslands, riparian zones and artificial water basins supported several of the conservation-significant plants.

Among 72 historical records reviewed for the valley, 33 taxa were directly confirmed during fieldwork and 39 were not. The unconfirmed records were concentrated mainly around Monte Giovi. The study noted two possible explanations: older localities were sometimes described only approximately, making it difficult to determine whether plants occurred inside the defined basin, while agricultural abandonment and extensive reforestation may have reduced suitable habitat. The authors therefore treated habitat loss as a possible explanation rather than a demonstrated cause of every missing record.

Water bodies were identified as the most affected habitats because of hydromorphological alteration, water over-exploitation, pollution and alien-species invasion. The authors highlighted the conservation value and fragility of wetlands and artificial basins for rare hygrophytes. Ludwigia peploides subsp. montevidensis, a regulated alien macrophyte recently recorded in the area, was singled out because it can compete strongly with native aquatic communities. Overall, the survey provides a detailed baseline for the lower Sieve Valley, while the unconfirmed historical records and continuing pressures on aquatic habitats remain important limitations on the completeness of the inventory.

Subject of Research: Floristic inventory of vascular plants in Tuscany’s lower Sieve Valley

Article Title: The vascular flora of the lower Sieve Valley (Tuscany, central Italy)

Article References: Pinzani, L. (2025). The vascular flora of the lower Sieve Valley (Tuscany, central Italy). Italian Botanist, 19, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.19.144112

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.19.144112

Keywords: floristic inventory, vascular flora, lower Sieve Valley, Tuscany, plant diversity, biodiversity, alien species, field survey, species-area relationships, conservation status, vascular, flora

The fen is a small alkaline-fen meadow in the Caricion davallianae alliance, with elements of transition mires, at an average elevation of 300 metres above sea level in the pre-Alpine Valbelluna landscape. It lies within the 65-hectare Natura 2000 site “IT3230042 Torbiera di Lipoi,” for which the fen constitutes the core area. Its soils comprise fluvial and alluvial deposits over calcareous moraines associated with the Piave river glacier. The climate is temperate-continental, with a mean annual temperature of about 12 °C and mean annual precipitation of 1,200–1,500 mm, with peaks in autumn and spring.

The meadow was traditionally mowed for straw and hay production until the end of the twentieth century. During subsequent decades, abandonment of that management was followed by natural encroachment and a marked alteration of the site’s physiognomy. Approximately 45% of the fen’s surface was lost between 2003 and 2022. The present landscape is a mosaic of alkaline fen, transition mire, Molinia meadow, tall herb-fringe, wet woodland, oak-hornbeam forest, stable hay-meadow and willow-grove habitats.

For the inventory, researchers examined four literature sources published from 1976 to 1993, specimens held in the Herbarium C. Lasen at the Museo Naturalistico Dolomiti Bellunesi, and field observations collected in 2023 and 2024. These records spanned 50 years, from 1974 to 2024. The pre-abandonment scenario was reconstructed from bibliographic and herbarium data, whereas the current scenario was based on the new field survey. The comparison examined life forms, chorology and conservation value.

This approach had a specific limitation: the precise locations of historical observations were unknown. The authors therefore treated the site as morphologically well defined and considered a comparison between the formerly managed period and vegetation after approximately two decades of abandonment reasonable for conservation, monitoring and management purposes. The historical and recent observations were not equivalent sampling efforts, however, and the study’s analysis of change was qualitative rather than a controlled assessment of causation.

Seventy-seven taxa were found only during the recent survey, 165 were confirmed from historical surveys and 78 were not confirmed. Historical records of Carex acuta, Carex riparia, Galium palustre subsp. elongatum, Galium verum subsp. wirtgeni and Ranunculus tuberosus were considered doubtful and probably reflected misidentification. Seven families accounted for about 55% of the inventory: Poaceae with 37 taxa, Cyperaceae with 32, Asteraceae with 20, Lamiaceae with 16, Ranunculaceae with 16, Rosaceae with 16 and Fabaceae with 14.

Five families recorded historically—Campanulaceae, Lentibulariaceae, Linaceae, Polygalaceae and Potamogetonaceae—were not detected during the recent survey, while Caprifoliaceae, Dioscoreaceae and Onagraceae were newly recorded. Hemicryptophytes, geophytes, phanerophytes and therophytes were the most represented life forms, and their overall proportions remained relatively constant between the compared periods. No hydrophytes were found during the recent survey, while phanerophytes tended to increase. Historical observations in 1985 described Salix cinerea, Alnus glutinosa and Quercus robur as occurring in scattered populations, whereas they were widespread across much of the fen in the recent survey. Frangula alnus and Phragmites australis also colonized the site in recent decades.

The biogeographic composition remained comparatively stable, with Eurasian, European-Caucasian, Eurosiberian, European and Circumboreal species predominating, although Eurasian, Eurosiberian and European species decreased relative to the pre-abandonment period. Alien plants represented 4.4% of the recorded flora, principally North American species, whose proportion increased over time. Ten alien taxa were classified as invasive, one as naturalized, one as casual and two as cryptogenetic. Most occurred in small, scattered populations, although Symphyotrichum lanceolatum formed a relatively large but bounded population in the eastern part of the fen.

Plantago altissima was listed as critically endangered in the Veneto Red List, while seven species were classified as vulnerable: Festuca trichophylla, Gentiana pneumonanthe, Carex lasiocarpa, Carex randalpina, Dactylorhiza incarnata, Equisetum fluviatile and Taraxacum sect. Palustria. Epipactis palustris, Menyanthes trifoliata and Cladium mariscus were near threatened. Two previously recorded red-listed species, Rosa gallica and Utricularia minor, were not found and could be locally extinct, while Potamogeton gramineus was considered regionally extinct. The authors noted that most fen-related vascular species still occurred, although populations were thought to have declined. Cladium mariscus and Carex lasiocarpa, by contrast, were reported to be expanding based on the authors’ field observations.

The findings indicated that the surviving flora still reflected a period when fen habitats were more extensive, suggesting that habitat reduction had not yet produced all the species losses it might eventually cause. The authors concluded that conservation could focus on maintaining the remaining open areas rather than restoring the former management regime or removing newly formed forests, which they noted may also be valuable to animals. They proposed small-scale manual mowing, rapid removal of material outside the fen and seasonal timing intended to limit the spread of alien plants, combined with monitoring to assess effects and adjust measures if unexpected dynamics emerged.

Subject of Research: Floristic inventory and historical vegetation comparison of an alkaline fen in Veneto, northern Italy

Article Title: Inventory of the vascular flora of the alkaline fen “Torbiera di Lipoi” (Veneto, northern Italy)

Article References: Zanatta, K., Lasen, C., Scariot, A., & Nascimbene, J. (2025). Inventory of the vascular flora of the alkaline fen “Torbiera di Lipoi” (Veneto, northern Italy). Italian Botanist, 19, 21-30. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.19.132549

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.19.132549

Keywords: floristic inventory, vascular flora, alkaline fen, Torbiera di Lipoi, Veneto, plant diversity, vegetation change, traditional mowing, Natura 2000, Inventory, vascular, flora

The format of the series is deliberately compact. Each record is submitted electronically, limited to a thousand characters, and must be accompanied by a corresponding herbarium specimen or its scan, deposited in the FI Herbarium in Florence. This discipline matters because distributional claims in botany are only as reliable as the physical evidence behind them. A record without a voucher cannot be re-examined with modern taxonomic tools, and the Notulae framework enforces that every claim of novelty, confirmation, or exclusion is anchored to material that future researchers can retrieve and, if necessary, re-identify.

Among the most striking novelties are three lady’s mantle species newly recorded for Umbria and Molise. Alchemilla effusa was found at Piano Grande near Castelluccio di Norcia on calcareous soil at 1,272 meters, while Alchemilla reniformis turned up on the north-facing pastures of Monte Coscerno at 1,635 meters. Alchemilla marsica, previously unknown in Molise, was detected in Capracotta within a priority semi-natural grassland dominated by Bromopsis erecta and Carex flacca. Lady’s mantles are notoriously difficult taxonomically because of apomixis, the process by which plants produce seeds without sexual recombination, effectively freezing lineages into morphologically distinct microspecies. Records like these therefore depend on careful determination by specialists, with revisions noted in the documentation.

The grasslands of the Ticino valley in Piemonte yielded two significant results. Crassula tillaea, a tiny annual stonecrop previously dismissed from Piemonte as a mistaken record, was found in large populations in pioneer siliceous dry grasslands between an industrial zone and the right bank of the Ticino River, growing alongside Aira caryophyllea and Tuberaria guttata. Sagina alexandrae was confirmed in the same area, within grassland classified as priority Habitat 6210. These findings show how badland and riverine environments can harbor species that older literature either misidentified or overlooked, and how the reclassification of a record from error to confirmed population requires the observation of substantial, reproducing stands rather than a single stray individual.

Coastal and wetland habitats in southern Italy produced several notable confirmations. Euphorbia palustris, the marsh spurge, was rediscovered in a reed thicket within a coastal pine plantation at Chieuti in Puglia, confirming a report by Fiori from 1926 in the Gulf of Taranto area that had never been verified. Melomphis arabica was confirmed in Calabria with a well-established population near San Ferdinando on uncultivated roadside land. In Puglia, Montia arvensis was confirmed in humid therophytic meadows in the Bosco Difesa Grande, and Tragopogon eriospermus was found near Laterza in a meadow dominated by Lolium arundinaceum, confirming a historical report by Tenore for the Tavoliere plain dating to 1831.

Aquatic and segetal species also featured prominently. Najas major, an aquatic macrophyte, was recorded for the first time in Basilicata during monitoring of the submerged vegetation of Lake Pantano near Pignola, where small patches of a Najas-dominated community were detected at depths between 0.6 and 1.3 meters. Vicia pannonica subsp. striata, a Mediterranean segetal element considered alien in northeastern Italy, was newly recorded for Basilicata at the edge of a wheat field. Trigonella infesta, a western Mediterranean species reaching east to the Ionian Islands of Greece, was recorded for the first time in Puglia in the stony dry wasteland of the Gravina di Ginosa, extending its documented peninsular range beyond Basilicata.

Some of the most consequential entries are exclusions rather than additions. Sisymbrium austriacum subsp. austriacum has been removed from the floras of Campania and Molise. The original reports trace back to Tenore in 1831, but Tenore himself doubted the identification, questioning whether his incomplete material represented a variety of Sisymbrium altissimum or even a new species. The only pertinent specimen in Tenore’s herbarium, consisting of a few fruiting scapes apparently collected in Abruzzo, has been re-identified as Sisymbrium orientale. The exclusion demonstrates the self-correcting nature of a voucher-based flora: when the only supporting specimen contradicts a century-old literature claim, the claim must be withdrawn, even when it has been repeated in authoritative works such as Pignatti’s Flora d’Italia.

Historical herbarium material played a decisive role in several other records. Salsola tragus was newly recorded for Lazio not only through fresh fieldwork in the Tarquinia saltworks nature reserve but also through the revision of three specimens collected by B. Anzalone in Rome and Latina provinces between 1966 and 1987, previously filed under the broader name Salsola kali. Similarly, Narcissus tazetta subsp. italicus was confirmed for Sardegna on the basis of new collections in humid meadows and field margins, confirming records from Jerzu material collected in 1884 and 1895 that had never been verified since. Vicia melanops was confirmed for Emilia-Romagna in the Parco dei Gessi Bolognesi, verifying a record by Odoardo Beccari from 1864 for the hills around Bologna.

Even urban environments contributed. Lysimachia loeflingii was confirmed for Puglia in synanthropic vegetation on the campus of the University of Bari, in ruderal areas near construction sites and pedestrian passages, resolving a long-standing doubt about the species’ peninsular presence, since it was otherwise known in Italy only from Sardegna and Sicilia. Hieracium records added regional novelties as well, with Hieracium diaphanoides subsp. pseudumbrosum new for Emilia-Romagna in a mesophilous mixed wood on Monte Fuso, and Hieracium tenuiflorum subsp. tenuiflorum new for Marche at Monte Ascensione, refining a recent genus-level record to the subspecies rank.

The contribution also documents a naturalized regional alien: Viburnum tinus subsp. tinus, found on the hill of Torino near the Colle della Maddalena in a thermophilous downy oak woodland, where it forms a small reproductive population with numerous young seedlings apparently originating from the older plants. Such cases illustrate the boundary between native and alien status in a regional flora, and how establishment evidence, including recruitment, informs that classification. Together with the new records, confirmations, and exclusions, the sixteenth Notulae installment shows that Italy’s native vascular flora remains a living dataset, maintained through fieldwork, herbarium curation, and the willingness to correct the botanical record whenever the evidence demands it.

Subject of Research: Botany

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

Article References: Bartolucci, F., Domina, G., Adorni, M., Assini, S., Brugellis, I., Buccomino, G., Carruggio, F., Conti, F., Costanzo, E., Del Guacchio, E., Falcinelli, F., Festi, F., Fontanabona, L., Forte, L., Fortini, P., Galasso, G., Genduso, E., Ghillani, L., Gottschlich, G., … Lastrucci, L. (2023). Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 16. Italian Botanist, 16, 89-103. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.16.114657

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.16.114657

Keywords: Italy, vascular flora, botany, plant records, biodiversity, herbarium, species distribution, Notulae, Italian, native, vascular, flora

The geography of Feniglia is what makes it botanically exceptional. The dune system stretches roughly six kilometres long and one kilometre wide, covering about 4.92 square kilometres and rising no more than 14 metres above sea level. Together with another sandy strip, it encloses the Orbetello lagoon, cutting it off from the open Mediterranean Sea. According to the researchers, coastal dunes that lie in direct contact with coastal lagoons are genuinely rare in the Mediterranean Basin, where only about 54 main coastal lagoons exist and lagoon shores are typically dominated by shrubs or herbs rather than forest. Feniglia, by contrast, packs pine forest, dune and lagoon macrohabitats into a single narrow isthmus, a configuration that has earned it recognition as a protected biotope and as a distinctive biotope of the Mediterranean macchia.

The isthmus itself is a young landform, built during the late Quaternary period as carbonate-rich sands eroded from Monte Argentario were transported by sea waves and strong southwesterly winds. Its creation converted what was once an island of the Tuscan Archipelago into a promontory, and it now functions as an ecological corridor linking the peninsula to this former island, a connection of considerable biogeographical significance given the endemic animals and plants of Argentario. The sands that built the dune, however, nearly destroyed the lagoon when human mismanagement set them in motion again.

In the early 1800s, the municipality of Orbetello sold the dune to private owners who exploited it intensively for grazing and logging. Deforestation allowed sand to pour into the Orbetello lagoon, creating shallow marshes, harming fishing and increasing the risk of malaria. Authorities responded by building canals to improve water circulation, and reforestation plans were drafted around 1900, though landowners’ opposition delayed them until a 1910 law designated all of Feniglia as public land. In 1911, a consolidation and reforestation project began, mainly planting maritime pine and stone pine to stop the lagoon from silting up, alongside Mediterranean dune species such as Calamagrostis arenaria subsp. arundinacea, Cakile maritima, Juniperus macrocarpa, Euphorbia paralias and Medicago marina. The works covered about 360 hectares until 1925, and the forest eventually expanded to roughly 460 hectares. The researchers note this is likely the oldest ecological rehabilitation operation in Europe, and the new inventory was undertaken more than a century after it began.

Compiling the checklist demanded substantial detective work. The team retrieved all past botanical research conducted entirely or partly in the study area, from nineteenth-century surveys to studies carried out shortly after reforestation began and others conducted 70 to 80 years later, and complemented this data mining with fresh field surveys in 2023. Species recorded before the reforestation were excluded from the analyses, as were erroneous reports identified in theses, and planted species were counted only if they had naturalised. Collected specimens are preserved in the herbaria of Siena and Viterbo, and identifications followed standard Italian and European floras, with nomenclature aligned to the most recent checklists of the Italian flora. Each taxon was assigned a life form, a chorological type and ecological indicator values, and classified into preferential macrohabitats of forest, dune or lagoon to allow separate analyses.

The resulting inventory shows a flora dominated by three families: Poaceae with 72 taxa, Asteraceae with 54 and Fabaceae with 52, a pattern broadly consistent with the Italian flora as a whole, though with the first two families reversed. The high number of grasses reflects the presence of xerophilous, discontinuous small grasslands, including a priority habitat under the EU Habitats Directive that occurs as a mosaic in the pine forest understorey. The abundance of Amaranthaceae, with genera tied to coastal salt marshes, and Cyperaceae, linked to wet habitats, mirrors the isthmus’s brackish lagoon and freshwater wetlands. The genus Trifolium stands out with 16 taxa, likely favoured by sandy, silica-rich soils and numerous dry grasslands, while the natural presence of numerous Quercus species in such a limited area is noteworthy enough that the authors suggest it merits a dedicated study. Vascular cryptogams, by contrast, are represented by only two species, a scarcity the researchers attribute to limited summer water availability and the absence of rocky substrates.

A species-area analysis revealed that the observed flora is far richer than expected for an area of this size. The 502 recorded taxa exceed the predicted value of 377 by more than 33 percent, with native species exceeding expectations by 27.35 percent and alien species by 42.11 percent. The life-form spectrum is dominated by therophytes, short-lived plants that complete their cycle quickly and thrive on well-drained, nutrient-poor soils, followed by hemicryptophytes and phanerophytes. The ratio of hemicryptophytes to therophytes, at 0.54, reflects a Mediterranean-type bioclimate consistent with values reported for nearby protected areas. The chorological spectrum tells the same climatic story: Mediterranean species lead with 157 taxa, followed by Euromediterranean and Eurasiatic elements, confirming the picture painted by the biological forms and matching findings from other Tuscan coastal areas such as Monte Argentario, Diaccia Botrona and Lake Burano.

The conservation headline figures are striking. The inventory includes 15 species of the Tuscan Attention List and 3 species of the Italian Red List, alongside 3 Italian endemics: Ornithogalum exscapum, found in the pine forest; Limonium multiforme, endemic to the Tuscan coast from Livorno to the Ansedonia promontory; and Linaria purpurea, widespread in central and southern Italy. Sixteen species are considered rare in Tuscany, including Atriplex littoralis, whose Feniglia lagoon populations are the only recent and certain ones in the region and represent the southern limit of the species in Italy. Juncus sorrentinoi, known nationally only from Sardinia and Tuscany, is recorded here as only the second site for the region. Maresia nana, a psammophilous dune specialist, appears to survive in Tuscany at Feniglia alone. Staphisagria macrosperma, collected in the region over a century ago, persists in locally abundant populations near the reserve entrance on the Ansedonia side. Four species reach their northern distribution limit at Feniglia, and three species were found to be new for the province of Grosseto.

Alien species, often the bellwether of ecological degradation, are surprisingly scarce. The team found 26 alien species at the Italian level, of which 15 are invasive, 9 naturalised and 2 casual, a relatively low presence the researchers interpret as an excellent indicator of naturalness, especially since most occur with very limited populations. Of the numerous non-native species trialled during the historic reforestation experiments, including radiata pine, Monterey cypress and black locust, very few have naturalised and the majority are no longer present. Two discoveries stand out: Monterey cypress is reported as new to Tuscany, while white elm is new to the province of Grosseto. The lagoon environment, with its harsh salinity, anaerobic muddy substrate and fluctuating water levels, hosts no alien species at all and acts as a protective barrier for the isthmus. The authors also weigh in on the stone pine itself, noting that although some consider it alien in Italy, its Mediterranean origins and the persistence of dune species in its understorey mean not all authors agree on its alien status.

The study’s conclusions carry a message that extends well beyond one Tuscan dune. Feniglia has transitioned from shrubland to pasture to dune to forest over the past two centuries, yet it still supports species of particular conservation interest, many of them rare or at their geographical limits, and its low alien load signals genuine naturalness. The researchers argue that the multiple layers of protection now covering the area, as a State Nature Reserve, a Special Protection Area and part of Special Areas of Conservation, have been decisive in preserving its plant diversity despite the environmental upheavals of the last century and the tourist pressure of each summer. As a benchmark for future research in botany and related fields, the inventory demonstrates that floristic surveys, though time-demanding and increasingly neglected, remain the foundation for understanding and conserving natural heritage, and that well-designed protection can allow even a heavily modified landscape to recover its botanical soul.

Subject of Research: Floristic inventory of the vascular flora of the isthmus of Feniglia Nature Reserve in southern Tuscany, Italy

Article Title: Vascular flora of the isthmus of Feniglia (southern Tuscany, Italy)

Article References: Fiaschi, T., Bonari, G., Frignani, F., Gizzi, G., Landi, M., Magrini, S., Quilghini, G., Pafumi, E., Scoppola, A., & Angiolini, C. (2024). Vascular flora of the isthmus of Feniglia (southern Tuscany, Italy). Italian Botanist, 17, 77-101. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.17.122982

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.17.122982

Keywords: Feniglia, Tuscany, Italy, vascular flora, Mediterranean, coastal dunes, biodiversity, conservation, alien species, pine forest, Orbetello lagoon, endemic plants

The scale of the effort is best captured by the numbers behind the list. The team assembled 6,821 records for the municipality, more than 95 percent of them based on direct field observations, with the remainder supported by 148 herbarium specimens and 135 photographic records. All field observations were archived in the open-access database Wikiplantbase #Italia, making the dataset freely verifiable and reusable. For the most significant taxa, herbarium specimens were prepared and deposited, and seeds of some species were stored in the seed bank of the Botanic Garden and Museum of the University of Pisa, an insurance policy against local losses.

Two species turned out to be entirely new records for the region of Calabria: Chenopodium ficifolium, a goosefoot of disturbed ground, and Orobanche cernua, a parasitic broomrape. In a country whose flora has been catalogued for centuries, finding regional novelties in a heavily farmed lowland valley underscores how much basic distributional knowledge remains incomplete even in well-studied European territories.

The inventory also carries a conservation warning. Four species documented only by historical herbarium specimens could not be rediscovered and may now be locally extinct, including Visnaga crinita, last seen in the area in 1827 and assessed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) on the Italian Red List. Euphorbia aleppica, Lotus angustissimus and Trifolium ligusticum likewise await confirmation. In total, 34 taxa recorded in Tarsia appear on the Red List of the Italian Flora: 21 as Least Concern, 8 as Data Deficient, 4 as Near Threatened, one as Vulnerable (Dracunculus vulgaris), one as Endangered (Fritillaria messanensis subsp. messanensis) and the possibly extinct Visnaga crinita.

Among the most significant finds are 17 Italian endemics, species found nowhere else in the world, including Artemisia campestris subsp. variabilis, Crocus biflorus, Daucus broteroi, Euphorbia corallioides, Euphorbia meuselii, Gypsophila arrostoi subsp. arrostoi, Micromeria consentina, Ophrys incubacea subsp. brutia, Ornithogalum exscapum, Salvia haematodes, Silene echinata, Stipa austroitalica, Thalictrum calabricum and Picris scaberrima, the last of which was originally described from the Tarsia area itself. Endemics account for 2.8 percent of the recorded flora, a modest but meaningful share for a landscape dominated by agriculture.

The statistical profile of the flora tells a clear biogeographical story. Mediterranean taxa dominate at 43 percent, followed by widely distributed species at 18.5 percent and Eurosiberian species at 15.5 percent, with about 10 percent spanning both regions. Life-form analysis shows therophytes, short-lived plants that survive unfavorable seasons as seeds, leading at 39.2 percent, followed by hemicryptophytes at 28.6 percent, geophytes at 14.7 percent, phanerophytes at 12.8 percent, chamaephytes at 3.1 percent and hydrophytes at 1.6 percent. The most species-rich families are Asteraceae with 90 taxa, Poaceae with 66 and Fabaceae with 61, while the richest genera are Trifolium with 18 taxa, Euphorbia with 10, Silene with 8, and Ophrys and Plantago with 7 each.

Notably, the established flora falls short of statistical expectations. Using Arrhenius’ species-area relationship, calibrated with coefficients derived from Italy’s floristic richness, the researchers predicted 803 species and subspecies for an area of this size, including 38 aliens. The observed totals of 618 species and 64 aliens represent a 25 percent shortfall for the established flora and an 11 percent shortfall for aliens. The authors attribute this deficit to low environmental variability and a high degree of human disturbance: spontaneous vegetation survives mainly in relict patches between olive groves, vineyards, citrus orchards and roadsides.

Alien species deserve particular scrutiny. Of the 64 non-native taxa, 21 are casual, 25 naturalized and 18 invasive. Among the invasive species, two appear on the list of invasive alien species of Union concern under European Regulation 1143/2014 and its implementing regulations: Ailanthus altissima, the tree of heaven, and Reynoutria japonica, Japanese knotweed, the latter so far known in Tarsia only in cultivation. The most frequently recorded aliens in the field were Erigeron canadensis, Arundo donax, Opuntia ficus-indica, Sorghum halepense and Robinia pseudoacacia, a familiar cast of Mediterranean and global invaders thriving on disturbance.

The most commonly observed native species paint a portrait of the working landscape: Oloptum thomasii with 162 records, Artemisia campestris subsp. variabilis with 155, wild carrot with 140, slender wild oat with 139 and sticky fleabane with 127, alongside oleander, downy oak and giant fennel. The team also noted rarities unusual for Calabria, such as Isoetes durieui, Myosurus minimus and Spirodela polyrhiza, and two coastal-affinity species, Artemisia arborescens and Atriplex halimus, growing on cliffs below the town itself, a reminder that even urban edges can harbor unexpected ecological refuges.

Perhaps the most methodologically interesting output is the Map of Relative Floristic Ignorance, computed from all 10,726 floristic records available for the province of Cosenza using a 1-kilometer grid and a 20-year temporal coefficient. The map assigns each cell an Index of Relative Floristic Ignorance, ranging from blue for well-known areas to red for poorly known ones, and reveals that the cells near the northern and south-western borders of the municipality remain the least explored. Targeted surveys there could push the documented flora closer to its expected richness and refine the conservation picture. For a landscape once dismissed as botanically unremarkable, Tarsia now offers a benchmark: a complete, openly accessible inventory showing what intensive fieldwork can recover from even the most ordinary Mediterranean farmland, and a template for closing the knowledge gaps that still riddle the floristic map of Italy.

Subject of Research: Floristic inventory of the vascular plants of Tarsia, Calabria, southern Italy

Article Title: The vascular flora of Tarsia (Calabria, southern Italy)

Article References: Peruzzi, L. (2026). The vascular flora of Tarsia (Calabria, southern Italy). Italian Botanist, 21, 35-46. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.21.184523

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.21.184523

Keywords: floristic inventory, Tarsia, Calabria, vascular flora, Italian endemics, invasive alien species, biodiversity conservation, Mediterranean flora, species-area relationship, Red List, Crati Valley, botanical survey

The research team set out with two goals: to build a comprehensive floristic inventory for an area that had never been fully catalogued, and to measure how the occurrence of species of conservation interest had changed over the past 65 years. To achieve this, the botanists examined specimens preserved in the Herbarium Universitatis Camerinensis, collected by generations of botanists from the University of Camerino, and cross-referenced them with records from classical Italian floras and phytosociological studies dating back to the early 1960s. Between 2021 and 2025, they then carried out systematic field surveys restricted to wet and humid habitats, croplands, uncultivated land, hedges and roadside verges, deliberately excluding the woodlands and grasslands on the surrounding slopes.

The Piani di Montelago themselves are geologically fascinating. These closed basins of structural and tectonic origin sit within calcareous Apennine mountains, their floors sealed by clayey deposits and impermeable rock layers. Water escapes only underground through a network of sinkholes, and after intense rain or snowmelt, two temporary lakes briefly form across the plains. The upper plain is especially significant because layers of peat in its soil support a rare peat bog vegetation dominated by the broad-leaved cottongrass Eriophorum latifolium, while the wetter inner zones host sedges and hay meadows of exceptional biogeographic value.

Human history has left deep marks on this landscape. During the Renaissance, the Da Varano family, lords of Camerino, demolished the natural rock barrier separating the two plains and dug an artificial canal in 1458 to drain water from the upper to the lower level, enabling agriculture on the plain. But the most damaging interventions came much later. Between 1963 and 1979, large sections of the upper plain adjacent to the peat bog were ploughed, tilled and drained with deep canals to convert them into cropland, progressively destroying the humid, marshy and peaty meadows. The most recent tillage was recorded as late as 2006. The lower plain, by contrast, remained practically intact and still largely retains its natural character.

The checklist reveals a flora of striking richness. The most represented families are Asteraceae with 58 taxa, Poaceae with 53, Fabaceae with 44, Lamiaceae with 26, and Cyperaceae and Rosaceae with 23 each. The richest genera are Carex with 18 taxa, Trifolium with 15 and Veronica with 10. Life form analysis shows a clear dominance of hemicryptophytes at 50.7 percent, reflecting the extensive perennial grasslands, followed by therophytes at 22.7 percent, a signature of the transition between temperate and Mediterranean climates. Geophytes account for 14.3 percent, phanerophytes for 8.7 percent, while hydrophytes and helophytes together make up less than 2 percent, underscoring how rare true aquatic habitats have become.

Among the 481 taxa, the survey produced genuine discoveries. One species, the dandelion relative Taraxacum subalpinum, is new to the Italian flora, and a historical herbarium specimen of the Taraxacum porrigentilobatum group also appears to be a first for the country. Six further taxa are new to the regional flora of Marche: Carex paniculata subsp. paniculata, Hypericum perfoliatum, Lophiolepis eriophora, Mentha arvensis, Taraxacum frisicum and Taraxacum olivaceum. Critical genera such as Taraxacum, Orobanche and Thymus were sent to specialist taxonomists for verification, and the nomenclature follows the most recent checklists of the native and alien vascular flora of Italy.

Yet the study also documents a quiet erosion. Of the 481 taxa recorded, 68 were last documented more than 30 years ago and were not found during the recent survey. Seventeen of these unconfirmed species are typical of wetlands or are of conservation interest. The latest record of the marsh helleborine Epipactis palustris dates back to 1963; several others, including Carex riparia, Eleocharis uniglumis and three Taraxacum species, were last seen in 1966. Limniris pseudacorus was last recorded in 1978, and species such as Ophioglossum vulgatum and Isolepis cernua in 1984. The pattern is unmistakable: most of these losses trace directly back to the ploughing and drainage works carried out between 1963 and 1979 on the upper plain near the peat bog.

Twenty-one taxa in the checklist are included in the IUCN Red List of the Italian Flora, eleven of which are endemic to Italy. The most threatened is Ranunculus ophioglossifolius, classified as Vulnerable. Two species are Near Threatened, fifteen are Least Concern and three are Data Deficient. Six Red-listed taxa were not found during the survey, only one of which, Epipactis palustris, was linked to peaty and marshy meadows. Alien species make up just 1.9 percent of the flora, with six archaeophytes reflecting centuries of traditional mountain farming, including Medicago sativa as fodder, Centaurea cyanus as a cereal weed indicator of low-input agriculture, Malus domestica from traditional intercropping and Galega officinalis from ancient medicinal cultivation.

Compared with the neighbouring Altipiani di Colfiorito, the Montelago plains show a higher proportion of hemicryptophytes and geophytes and fewer therophytes, reflecting the more limited presence of croplands and uncultivated ground. Montelago also hosts more Italian endemic taxa, eleven versus six, and more Red List species, twenty-one versus seventeen, than Colfiorito. Both sites share a legacy of similar anthropogenic pressures: at Colfiorito, peat extraction eliminated species such as Hippuris vulgaris and Hydrocotyle vulgaris, both now Endangered on the Italian Red List. The chorological spectrum is dominated by Eurasian and boreal elements, which together account for nearly 70 percent of the flora, consistent with the severe and prolonged cold stress of this Apennine sector.

The findings carry a clear conservation message. The negligible percentage of alien species, combined with the persistence of numerous taxa of conservation interest, reflects currently limited anthropogenic pressure and highlights the key role of the Piani di Montelago for species conservation in the central Apennines. Today the area falls within the Natura 2000 network as both a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area, and the meadows are still mowed and grazed by sheep and cattle. As the authors note, a significant loss of plant species has occurred in recent decades, primarily due to habitat destruction and alteration, but the survival of this wetland flora offers a rare second chance for one of Italy’s most botanically significant mountain plains.

Subject of Research: Floristic checklist and conservation assessment of the vascular flora of the Piani di Montelago wetland in the Marche region of central Italy

Article Title: Checklist of the vascular flora of the “Piani di Montelago” (Marche, Italy)

Article References: Venturi, E., Ballelli, S., Pennesi, R., Akosim, S. V., Catorci, A., & Tardella, F. M. (2026). Checklist of the vascular flora of the “Piani di Montelago” (Marche, Italy). Italian Botanist, 21, 159-171. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.21.188515

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.21.188515

Keywords: vascular flora, Piani di Montelago, wetland conservation, Marche, Apennines, floristic checklist, IUCN Red List, endemic species, Taraxacum, peat bog, Natura 2000, plant diversity

The effort builds on a cartographic tradition that stretches back almost half a century. The first map of Italian floristic knowledge was released in 1978, and a second edition followed in 2005. To create the new version, the researchers compiled a bibliographic catalogue of 3,423 scientific articles and 479 books or book chapters, organized by administrative region. Each reference was manually georeferenced to a polygon delimiting the spatial extent of the area it covered, using vector cartography from the Italian National Geoportal and toponyms drawn from the 1:25,000 topographic map series of the Italian Military Geographic Institute. The team adopted the same five-level classification system used in 2005, ranging from virtually unknown areas to well-known areas, allowing a direct comparison of knowledge across three benchmark years: 1978, 2005 and 2025.

To quantify progress objectively rather than relying on anecdotal impressions, the researchers introduced a new metric: the Index of Floristic Knowledge Advancement, or IFA. This index measures the proportion of maximum potential progress that each region has actually achieved between 2005 and the ideal state of complete knowledge, expressed as a normalized value between 0 and 1. Values are categorized as limited, moderate, high or very high. Crucially, all analyses were based on regional percentage distributions rather than absolute areas, ensuring that small regions could be compared fairly with large ones. At the national scale, the IFA was just 0.22 when comparing 1978 with 2005, but rose to 0.30 when comparing 2005 with 2025, a signal that the pace of discovery has accelerated even as the easiest gains have already been made.

The regional rankings tell a striking story. Emilia-Romagna emerged as the most comprehensively documented region in Italy, with an IFA of 0.81, the only region to reach the very high category. Its area classified as well-known soared from 26.52 percent to 82.01 percent over the two decades. Lombardia followed with 0.60, then Friuli-Venezia Giulia at 0.54, and Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto tied at 0.53. In central Italy and the islands, Lazio scored 0.50, Sardegna 0.45 and Toscana 0.36. Trentino-Alto Adige deserves special mention for sheer data volume: the number of floristic records there jumped from 897,000 in 2005 to 2,191,000 in 2025, driven by two ongoing mapping projects, one for the province of Bolzano and one for the province of Trento.

The drivers of this acceleration are diverse. Coordinated scientific projects, citizen science programs, the development of digital databases such as the Wikiplantbase platforms, and a renewed focus on taxonomic research all played a role. In Piemonte, a collaborative mapping programme gathered more than 790,000 georeferenced records by 2021, most of them collected in the last two decades, while the annual series Note floristiche piemontesi has published over 1,350 records since 2005. In Toscana, the companion series Contributi per una flora vascolare di Toscana has added more than 1,200 records since 2009, and the monumental Flora Analitica della Toscana, published between 2016 and 2021, synthesized the region’s vascular flora in eight volumes. In Emilia-Romagna, a decade-long mapping project launched in 2016 has compiled over 200,000 bibliographic and original field records for the Romagna biogeographical region.

The discovery of new species has been equally impressive. Between 2005 and 2025, a total of 579 new names were published based on material collected in Italy, of which 126, roughly 22 percent, were later synonymized with previously described taxa. The remaining 453 accepted taxa include 291 species and 162 subspecies, and 443 of them are Italian endemics. Abruzzo leads the regional count with 74 newly described taxa, followed by Sicilia with 69, Toscana with 53 and Sardegna with 51. The genus Hieracium, the hawkweeds, dominates the list with 147 taxa, followed by the orchid genera Ophrys with 33 and Epipactis with 29, and the dandelion genus Taraxacum with 26. By family, Asteraceae accounts for 195 of the new taxa, with Orchidaceae contributing 44.

Yet the numbers also expose a structural weakness in Italian botany. The vast majority of publications, 2,931 of them, focus on small areas within a single region, while only 95 works cover at least 18 regions and a mere 2.43 percent address the national scale. Research effort is also geographically skewed: Sardegna, with 916 references, and Piemonte, with 784, together account for nearly a third of the total, while Basilicata, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Molise, Umbria and Valle d’Aosta each attracted about 300 references or fewer. The Orchidaceae family, beloved of amateur botanists, generated the most studies of any plant family, with 425 references representing 10.8 percent of the total output.

The north-south divide is the study’s most sobering finding. While northern regions surged ahead, progress in the south and on the islands was markedly slower. Calabria and Sicilia exhibited near-stagnation, with minimal advancement into the highest knowledge categories, and Basilicata, Molise and Umbria remained largely at intermediate levels with little change over two decades. Virtually unknown areas still persist in central-western Abruzzo, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria, and large areas with only generic knowledge are concentrated in Liguria, Umbria, southern Abruzzo, northern Campania, northern Puglia, central Basilicata, central Calabria and central Sicilia. This is paradoxical given that much of the fieldwork organized by the Italian Botanical Society’s floristic working group was deliberately concentrated in southern Italy, yet these regions showed only modest improvements in documentation.

The analysis of newly published names also reveals instructive patterns about how taxonomy gets done. The 147 Hieracium names are almost exclusively the work of a single researcher, Günther Gottschlich, collaborating with local collectors. Among orchids, a group heavily studied by amateurs, the rate of synonymy is strikingly high: more than 45 percent of the 81 described names, 37 in total, are now considered synonyms. The authors argue that this contrast demonstrates a key lesson, namely that synergistic collaboration between professional and amateur taxonomists is essential for producing reliable and durable taxonomic hypotheses. In Sicilia, most of the 69 new species and subspecies described resulted from critical re-evaluation of previously known plants rather than genuine discoveries in under-explored areas, a reminder that naming is not the same as knowing.

Why does all this matter beyond the herbarium? Floristic knowledge, the authors contend, is a foundational, long-term investment and a cumulative record built through generations of fieldwork, and even a small floristic contribution is an essential component of global biodiversity knowledge, supporting taxonomic, biogeographic, evolutionary and conservation research. It is also a legal necessity: protected area managers rely on these baseline data to comply with monitoring obligations under Article 11 and reporting duties under Article 17 of the European Habitats Directive. Without a rigorous knowledge baseline, the researchers warn, advanced studies risk being erected on unstable ground, compromising the integrity, reproducibility and long-term value of the entire scientific enterprise. The message of the new map is clear: Italy knows its northern flora better than ever, but achieving a truly comprehensive picture of the country’s extraordinary plant diversity will require targeted fieldwork, sustained investment and far greater collaboration in the regions that time and funding have left behind.

Subject of Research: Twenty-year mapping of floristic knowledge advancement across the administrative regions of Italy

Article Title: Mapping the advancements in floristic knowledge of Italy (2005–2025)

Article References: Domina, G., Bacchetta, G., Bartolucci, F., D’Antraccoli, M., Peruzzi, L., Stinca, A., Alessandrini, A., Bernardo, L., Boscutti, F., Bouvet, D., Bovio, M., Calvia, G., Cambria, S., Conti, F., Dagnino, D., Del Guacchio, E., Galasso, G., Gigante, D., Di Gristina, E., … Barone, G. (2026). Mapping the advancements in floristic knowledge of Italy (2005–2025). Plant Biosystems, 160(4), Article 213. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44473-026-00207-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44473-026-00207-4

Keywords: floristics, Italy, vascular flora, biodiversity, endemism, plant taxonomy, biogeography, citizen science, Hieracium, Orchidaceae, conservation, floristic mapping