Search results for "Botanica"

‘Back to the Future’—Oak wood-pasture for wildfire prevention in the Mediterranean

2021

In the summer of 2021, enormous wildfires in the Mediterranean eliminated huge areas of mainly coniferous forest, destroyed adjacent settlements and claimed the lives of many people. The fires indicate effects of climate change and expose consequences of rural demographic changes, deficits in regional and touristic development planning and shortcomings in forest policy. This forum article highlights the dimensions of the problem, calls for a paradigm shift and shows solutions. Land abandonment, woody plant encroachment and non-reflective afforestation are leading to increasing amounts of combustible biomass. To prevent disastrous fires in future, fundamental changes in tree species composit…

Bryophytes collected during the 12th “Iter Mediterraneum” (Tunisia, 24 March – 4 April, 2014). First contribution

2015

Part of the bryophytes collected during Iter Mediterraneum XII is listed. Some noteworthy species were found: Dicranella howei, had so far been recorded only doubtfully from Tunisia; Funaria hygrometrica, Grimmia laevigata, Grimmia trichophylla, Imbribryum alpinum, Pogonatum nanum, Rhynchostegium riparioides, Scleropodium touretii, Scorpiurium circinatum, Thamnobryum alopecurum, Timmiella barbuloides, Tortella squarrosa, Tortula muralis and Tortula vahliana, had not been reported from that country for more than half a century.

Functional classifications and their application in phytoplankton ecology

2015

SUMMARY 1. Ecologists often group organisms based on similar biological traits or on taxonomic criteria. However, the use of taxonomy in ecology has many drawbacks because taxa may include species with very different ecological adaptations. Further, similar characters may evolve independently in different lineages. 2. In this review, we examine the main criteria that have been used in the identification of nine modes of classifying phytoplankton non-taxonomically. These approaches are based purely on morphological and/or structural traits, or on more complex combinations including physiological and ecological features. 3. Different functional approaches have proved able to explain some frac…

Seed germination of Thymus richardii subsp. nitidus (Lamiaceae)

2021

The germination ability of the punctual endemic Thymus richardii subsp. nitidus (Lamiaceae) from the Island of Marettimo in W Sicily was studied. Mature seeds were collected in the field. Different experimental conditions were tested and the best methods with optimal germination results were provided. This is the first germination record for this taxon.

First record of Eichleriella leucophaea (Basidiomycota) from Italy

2015

Eichleriella leucophaea Bres., a wood inhabiting heterobasidiomycete, is recorded for the first time in Italy. Fruiting body occurred on branch of Quercus ilex L. Description, distributional and ecological data of this uncommon taxon are here provided.

Emergenze floristiche e vegetazionali delle Madonie

2009

New molecular data attest to the absence of cospeciation patterns between Placobdella costata (Fr. Müller, 1846) (Hirudinea) and freshwater turtles (…

2021

The only Palearctic representative of the leech genus Placobdella Blanchard, 1893 is P. costata, an ectoparasite of freshwater turtles. To date, no conclusive evidence about the possible presence of coevolutionary patterns between this leech and its turtle hosts is available due to the paucity of DNA sequence data available for P. costata; moreover, comparative host data is also mostly lacking, making any inferences more difficult. The discovery of new populations of the species in northern Italy and Sicily allowed us to generate novel mitochondrial DNA sequences and to compare the topology of the resulting phylogenetic trees with the phylogeny of the turtle hosts occurring in the study are…

IN-VITRO REGENERATION OF CALENDULA MARITIMA GUSS. (ASTERACEAE), A THREATENED PLANT ENDEMIC TO WESTERN SICILY

2016

Calendula maritima is a critically endangered endemic plant of Western Sicily. Besides habitat destruction, the hybridization with the contiguous congener species C. fulgida is a major threat to its conservation. For this reason, seed-based propagation and seed storage are not appropriate for conservation purposes. In the present paper we describe a rapid and prolific in vitro plant regeneration method by direct organogenesis from leaves of C. maritima. Leaf explants were cultured on solid Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium in the presence of several plant growth regulator combinations. The best shoot multiplication rate (2.5 shoots/explant) was obtained on the medium containing 4.4 µM 6-benzy…

Environmental quality assessment of the Sicilian coast using a multi-disciplinary approach

2018

A multidisciplinary approach for the assessment of the environmental quality of the Sicilian coast is presented. This approach can be adopted for any Mediterranean coastline. The territory was divided into elementary areas and for each of them we reported the most important taxa, belonging to fauna and vascular, bryophytic and algal flora, from a biogeographic point of view in order to evaluate punctual and general levels of biodiversity conservation. The comparative analysis showed that the main circumsicilian islands and the carbonate promontories of the Tyrrhenian coast present the highest degree of biodiversity. The coastal lagoons located in the south-eastern Sicily, even though charac…

Hypericum scruglii sp. nov. (Guttiferae) from Sardinia

2010

A new species of Hypericum (Guttiferae) from Sardinia, H. scruglii, is described and illustrated. It occurs on damp soil, near springs or streams with freshwater, where it grows with numerous hygrophytes. This diploid species (2n � 16) belongs to the sect. Adenosepalum and is closely related to H. tomentosum, a species widespread in the west Mediterranean region. During field investigations in Sardinia, very peculiar populations of Hypericum L. were found occuring on damp soils and limited to calcareous substrates. These plants showed a close morphological and ecological relationship with H. tomentosum L., a species belonging to sect. Adenosepalum Spach. As emphasized by Robson (1996), the …