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

Abstract

Critical and updated alien species inventories are crucial to properly manage and contrast biological invasions. After 6 years, a second update to the inventory of the vascular flora alien to Italy is presented. It provides details on the occurrence at administrative regional level and, for the first time, floristic data for San Marino. The checklist includes 1782 taxa (1673 species, 28 subspecies, 69 hybrids and 12 cultivar groups not attributable to a specific binomial), distributed in 786 genera and 159 families; 2 taxa are lycophytes, 13 ferns and fern allies, 37 gymnosperms and 1730 angiosperms. Among these, 154 taxa are archaeophytes and 1628 neophytes. The alien taxa currently established in Italy are 899 (649 naturalized and 250 invasive), while 796 taxa are casual aliens, 1 is not assessed, 38 have not been confirmed in recent times, 4 are considered extinct or possibly extinct in the country, 40 are doubtfully occurring in Italy, 4 are of unknown regional distribution and 110 are reported by mistake and to be excluded at national level. This checklist allows to establish an up-to-date number (10,023) of taxa currently constituting the whole (either native or alien) Italian flora.

Keywords:

• IAS
• inventory
• Mediterranean
• non-native flora
• plant invasion
• systematics
• taxonomy

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge colleagues and friends who provided distribution, nomenclatural and taxonomic advices: Acta Plantarum ODV staff, Aldo Antonietti, Giovanni Astuti, Stefano Carfagno, Davide Dagnino, Roberto Dellavedova, Christopher R. Fraser-Jenkins, Luca Gariboldi, Giovanni Gestri, Duilio Iamonico, Valentina L.A. Laface, Simone Orsenigo, Marziano Pascale, Nicodemo G. Passalacqua, Brunello Pierini, Lorenzo Pinzani, Giovanni Spampinato, Marisa Vidali.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.