Plants (Feb 2024)

New Alien Plant Taxa for Italy and Europe: An Update

  • Carmelo Maria Musarella,
  • Valentina Lucia Astrid Laface,
  • Claudia Angiolini,
  • Gianluigi Bacchetta,
  • Enrico Bajona,
  • Enrico Banfi,
  • Giulio Barone,
  • Nello Biscotti,
  • Daniele Bonsanto,
  • Giacomo Calvia,
  • Salvatore Cambria,
  • Alberto Capuano,
  • Giuseppe Caruso,
  • Alessandro Crisafulli,
  • Emanuele Del Guacchio,
  • Emilio Di Gristina,
  • Gianniantonio Domina,
  • Emanuele Fanfarillo,
  • Simonetta Fascetti,
  • Tiberio Fiaschi,
  • Gabriele Galasso,
  • Francesco Mascia,
  • Giuliana Mazzacuva,
  • Giacomo Mei,
  • Pietro Minissale,
  • Riccardo Motti,
  • Enrico Vito Perrino,
  • Rosa Maria Picone,
  • Lorenzo Pinzani,
  • Lina Podda,
  • Giovanna Potenza,
  • Leonardo Rosati,
  • Adriano Stinca,
  • Gianmarco Tavilla,
  • Clizia Villano,
  • Robert Philipp Wagensommer,
  • Giovanni Spampinato

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13050620
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 5
p. 620

Abstract

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Despite the wide amount of scientific contributions published on alien plant species, their diffusion dynamics, and their interactions with native taxa, it is increasingly difficult to slow down their spreading and their negative impact on habitats. Last recent years, in fact, a sharp rise in the number of new alien plant taxa introduced in Italy and Europe has been recorded. The aim of this work is to investigate most of the Italian territory in order to verify whether this alarming trend is still underway. Specimen collections and/or observations of alien plants have been performed in as many as 12 Italian regions. All the collected specimens are stored in public or private herbaria. Taxa have been identified according to the literature from the countries of origin of the investigated taxa, while the nomenclature followed the current international references. Updates on 106 taxa are reported. In particular, among 117 new records, 89 are first records, 27 are changes to status and there is 1 extinction. Seven new taxa for Italian alien flora are reported, two of which are new to Europe. The administrative regions with the highest number of records are Calabria (48), Sardegna (17) and Sicilia (15). Five of the surveyed taxa, for the first time, have been considered invasive aliens to Italian territory. The unfrequent amount of original results provided by this work, over the simple importance of data itself, proves how floristic investigation, still today, represents one of the most effective tools in broadening the current knowledge about alien taxa and their dynamics.

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