Caratteri biogeografici della flora vascolare della Sicilia

Abstract

According to a recent catalogue and other new contributions, the vascular flora of Sicily consists of more than 3,250 specific and intraspecific taxa. Among them endemic taxa, including those very local and threatened, amount to 16%. Noteworthy are both adventitious and naturalized exotics, whose number has increased from the post-war period onwards. Besides endemic taxa, Mediterranean and Paleotemperate elements have a remarkable incidence. Also considerable are the Irano—Turanic, Macaronesic, Sub—Atlantic, Euro—Asiatic, Centro—European and Circum- boreal p/rytocboria. The latter is a clear evidence of the impact of the glacial expansion in the Mediterranean area as well as of the incidence of mountainous habitats upon the island. Besides a list of the endemic and rare taxa of Sicily, the Authors give a revision of biological and chorological spectra, previously elaborated on the basis of data drawn from the manuscript of Pignatti’s Flora d’Italia (1982) got over by then. Although on the whole consistent with the former, the new spectra provide an updated picture of the biological and chorological composition of the Sicilian flora as well as of the biogeographic relationships of the region