Acta Botanica Croatica, Vol. 67 No. 2, 2008.
Original scientific paper
Chasmophytic vegetation of the class Asplenietea trichomanis in south-eastern Italy
Massimo Terzi
; Institute of Plant Genetics, CNR, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy
Francesco S. D’Amico
; University of Bari, Department of Plant Production Science, Botanical Garden, Via Orabona 4, Bari, Italy
Abstract
The southeast of Italy is characterized by the presence of some highly phytogeographically relevant taxa with a Balkan-Aegean distribution. Three of these taxa, Campanula versicolor, Carum multiflorum and Scrophularia lucida, characterize the chasmophytic
vegetation in central-southern Apulia (Serre Salentine and Bassa Murgia). Chasmophytic vegetation has already been referred to the Onosmetalia frutescentis order and to its only alliance Campanulion versicoloris, which are syntaxa with mainly a south-western Balkan
distribution. This paper reports a phytosociological study of chasmophytic vegetation throughout the entire distributional range of these three species in south-eastern Italy and describes two new associations: Piptathero holciformis-Campanuletum versicoloris and
Iberido carnosae-Athamantetum siculi.We analyse their floristic relationships with other communities described for southern Italy, the Adriatic area and the southern Balkans. As distinct from reports in the literature, the results show that south-eastern Italian rupicolous
communities, now grouped under the new alliance Caro multiflori-Aurinion megalocarpae, have higher floristic similarity with the order Asplenietalia glandulosi, where they have been placed. In other words, the presence of different species gravitating in the East
discriminates the chasmophytic vegetation of south-eastern Italy within a central Mediterranean order, rather than justifying its assignment to Onosmetalia frutescentis, whose distributional
area is limited to the Balkan Peninsula.
Keywords
Chasmophytes; vegetation; phytosociology; Italy; Balkan
Hrčak ID:
28595
URI
Publication date:
20.10.2008.
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