A second update to the checklist of the vascular flora native to Italy

Abstract

Critical species inventories provide primary biodiversity data crucial for biogeographical, ecological, and conservation studies. After six years, a second update to the inventory of the vascular flora native to Italy is presented. It provides details on the occurrence at regional level and, for the first time, floristic data for San Marino. The checklist includes 8,241 species and subspecies, distributed in 1,111 genera and 153 families; 23 taxa are lycophytes, 108 ferns and fern allies, 30 gymnosperms, and 8,080 angiosperms. The species/subspecies endemic to Italy are 1,702, grouped in 71 families and 312 genera. The taxa currently occurring in Italy are 7,591, while 545 taxa have not been confirmed in recent times, 94 are doubtfully occurring in the country, 11 are data deficient, and 236 are reported by mistake and to be excluded at national level. Out of the 545 not confirmed taxa, 28 are considered extinct or possibly extinct.

Keywords:

• Endemics
• inventory
• Mediterranean
• plant diversity
• San Marino
• systematics
• taxonomy

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge colleagues and friends who provided distribution, nomenclatural and taxonomic advices: Acta Plantarum ODV, Aldo Antonietti, Giovanni Astuti, Manuel B. Crespo, Roberto Dellavedova, Romeo Di Pietro, Jacopo Franzoni, Christopher R. Fraser-Jenkins, Giovanni Gestri, Antonio Giacò, Duilio Iamonico, Lorenzo Lastrucci, Carmelo M. Musarella, Gianluca Nicolella, Giuseppe Oriolo, Simone Orsenigo, Marziano Pascale, Nicodemo G. Passalacqua, Enrico V. Perrino, Brunello Pierini, Lorenzo Pinzani, Manuel Tiburtini, Giancarlo Tondi, Jean-Marc Tison, Marisa Vidali.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.