Search results for " coenologic variability"

Downy-oak woods of Italy: phytogeographical remarks on a controversial taxonomic and ecologic issue

2014

The importance of downy oak as an integral component of the "submediterranean" woods has been underscored by many studies. Nevertheless, terms like "submediterranean" and "downy oak" are some of the most poorly understood concepts in European phytogeographic and taxonomic research. Downy oak is well known to be a problematic taxon. The name "Quercus pubescens" (= Q. humilis) combines populations characterized by increasing phenotypic and genomic polymorphisms along north-south gradients, which is explained as the result of a "founder effect" produced by a relatively fast post-glacial re-colonization of the northern areas through rare long-distance dispersal events. On the other hand, polymo…