Conservation aspects for chasmophytic species: Phenological behavior and seed strategies of the Central Apennine threatened endemism Moehringia papulosa Bertol

Abstract

Chasmophytic vegetation growing on the cracks of cliffs in the Mediterranean and in the Euro-Siberian phytogeographic regions shows a great regional diversity, with a large number of endemic plant species, many of them endangered and at risk of extinction. Moehringia papulosa is an example of a threatened plant living in this kind of habitat. It is an endemism of the Marche region in central Italy, whose natural populations are considered as critically endangered (CR) under the IUCN criteria and the habitat is protected by the E.U. (Directive 92/43/EEC) with the habitat 8210 “calcareous rocky slopes with chasmophytic vegetation”. The phenology of natural populations was analyzed, seed morphology is described and type and level of seed dormancy were determined. The effects of different collecting dates, localities and the influence of elaiosome on germination responses were also considered in order to establish germination requirements to provide optimal protocols for conservation and restoration programmes. Interpopulation differences on seed morphological features were not found and our results also confirm the fact that removal of the elaiosome stimulates germination. The seeds of this species show a non-deep physiological dormancy. The pretreatments proposed as optimal for germination are as follows: a combination of scarification and gibberellins, and 12 weeks of cold stratification.

Keywords:

• Conservation
• endangered
• endemism
• germination
• myrmecochory
• rocky habitat
• seed dormancy
• phenology

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to Dr. Luca Esposito (Department of Environmental and Crop Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University, Italy) and Dr. Leonardo Gubellini (Centro Ricerche Floristiche Marche of Pesaro-Urbino Province, Italy) for careful determination of ants from the natural habitats. They also thank the SCSIE of the University of Valencia (Spain) for providing access to the SEM facilities. The authors acknowledge the helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers. They also acknowledge the Regional Park of Gola della Rossa e di Frasassi for the economic support of the investigation.