The present portal organizes nomenclatural and distributional data from the recent checklists of the Italian native and alien vascular plants (and their subsequent updatings), with links to resources from other projects.
The publication of the checklist of the Italian vascular flora (Conti et al., 2005) was the first opportunity in which the members of the Working Group for Floristics, Systematics and Evolution of the Italian Botanical Society established an effective network of scientific collaborations. During the years, this collaborative approach has been refined and implemented, allowing to reach important scientific goals dealing with the flora alien to Italy (Celesti-Grapow et al., 2009, 2010), and with the Italian endemic flora (Peruzzi et al., 2015; Brundu et al., 2017). The synthesis by Conti et al. (2005) stimulated an impressive amount of floristic and systematic studies, so that – after 13 years – time was ripe for an update concerning the taxonomic and geographic knowledge on the Italian vascular flora.
Two separate lists were published in 2018: one concerning the native (including cryptogenic or doubfully native) vascular flora (Bartolucci et al., 2018a), the other concerning the alien taxa (archaeophytes and neophytes) (Galasso et al., 2018a).
Both checklists came to an end thanks to the close cooperation of more than 50 authors, coordinated by Fabrizio Bartolucci and Fabio Conti from the University of Camerino, Gabriele Galasso from the Natural History Museum of Milano, and Lorenzo Peruzzi from the University of Pisa.
A few months after their publication, thanks to Project Dryades of the University of Trieste (Nimis & Martellos, 2009; Martellos & Nimis, 2015), the nomenclatural, taxonomical and distributional data from the checklists, with their subsequent updatings published by Bartolucci et al. (2018b) and Galasso et al. (2018b) were organised into a database and made accessible online in the present portal, which also includes automatic links to other resources from Project Dryades, Acta Plantarum, and the Wikiplantbase initiatives (Bagella et al., 2015; Peruzzi & Bedini, 2015; Barberis & al., 2016; Domina & al., 2016). The portal is updated twice a year, and is progressively enriched with automatic links to further resources, such as local databases.
In 2024, two new checklists to the native (Bartolucci et al., 2024) and alien (Glasso et al., 2024) vascular flora have been published, as a further revision and update.


The data

Taxa at varietal rank and hybrids were not considered.
The Italian endemic status was attributed to those taxa occurring only in Italy, or in Italy and Corsica (France), or in Italy and Malta.
In order to recognise the taxa as non-native to Italy, the national standardized system developed by the research group who previously worked on this topic was used:
- casual: alien plants that may thrive and even produce offsprings occasionally outside cultivation, but that usually disappear because unable to form self-maintaining populations; their persistence rely on repeated introductions;
- naturalized: alien plants that occur with self-maintaining populations without direct human intervention;
- invasive: alien plants that occur with self-maintaining populations without direct human intervention, produce fertile offspring at considerable distances from the parent individuals, thus being able to spread over a large area;
- archaeophytes: alien plants introduced to Italy before 1492;
- neophytes: alien plants introduced to Italy after 1492.
Taxa involved in former domestication processes have been distinguished in two categories:
- culton: plant distinct from its wild relative(s) and capable to conserve its taxonomic independence in cultivation only; records from the wild are regarded as casual occurrences;
- feral: wild plant originated from a culton escaped from domestication and usually taxonomically distinct from the culton’s wild relative; it can either belong to the same taxon of the culton or belong to a different taxon.
The distribution data are given for each of the 20 administrative regions of Italy (not considering the two enclave-countries Republic of San Marino and Vatican City State). When the information concerning the distribution of a given subspecies for a region is missing, only the occurrence at species level was reported.
For each region, the occurrence status of each taxon is provided by using the following categories:
- Occurring.
- Doubtfully occurring.
- No longer recorded (reliable historical record).
- Extinct or possibly extinct.
- Recorded by mistake.
- Alien at regional and/or national level (Casual, Naturalized, Invasive, undefined invasion status).
- Italian endemic.
- Cryptogenic, i.e. a doubtfully native taxon, whose origin of occurrence in Italy is unknown.
- Taxonomically doubtful.
- Data deficient (unknown regional distribution; unknown alien staus) at national level.
- Archaeophyte.
- Neophyte.


Links to other resources

The portal also includes links to other resources which have harmonised their nomenclatural-taxonomical data with those of the checklists.
The main automatic links available in this version are:
1) Pictures of plants, from the image archive of project Dryades (Responsible: Andrea Moro). See: http://dryades.units.it/cercapiante/index.php
2) Cladograms following APG IV (2016), Christenhusz et al. (2011a), Christenhusz et al. (2011b), Ran et al. (2010), Schuettpelz & Pryer (2008), and Smith et al. (2006), from Project Dryades (prepared by Elena Pittao).
3) The thesaurus of Italian names of Project Dryades, largely based on those proposed by Pignatti (1982), and especially by Penzig (1924).
4) Links to resources created by Acta Plantarum, one of the most active groups of amateur botanists in Italy, including further pictures, altitudinal distribution, growth forms, etc.
5) Links to the resources made available by the Wikiplantbase initiative.

References

APG - Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2016) An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV. Bot. J. Linnean Soc. 181(1): 1–20.

Bagella S, Filigheddu R, Peruzzi L & Bedini G (eds.) (2015 onwards) Wikiplantbase #Sardegna v. 2.1 http://bot.biologia.unipi.it/wpb/sardegna/index.html

Barberis G, Longo D, Peruzzi L, Bedini G & Peccenini S (eds.) (2016 onwards) Wikiplantbase #Liguria v. 2.1 http://bot.biologia.unipi.it/wpb/liguria/index.html

Bartolucci F, Peruzzi L, Galasso G, Albano A, Alessandrini A, Ardenghi NMG, Astuti G, Bacchetta G, Ballelli S, Banfi E, et al. (2018a) An updated checklist of the vascular flora native to Italy. Plant Biosyst. 152(2): 179–303.

Bartolucci F, Domina G, Ardenghi NMG, Banfi E, Bernardo L, Bonari G, Buccomino G, Calvia G, Carruggio F, Cavallaro V, et al. (2018b) Notulae to the Italian native vascular flora: 5. Italian Botanist 5: 71–81. doi: 10.3897/italianbotanist.5.25892

Bartolucci F, Peruzzi L, Galasso G, Alessandrini A, Ardenghi NMG, Bacchetta G, Banfi E, Barberis G, Bernardo L, Bouvet D, Bovio M, Calvia G, Castello M, Cecchi L, Del Guacchio E, Domina G, Fascetti S, Gallo L, Gottschlich G, Guarino R, Gubellini L, Hofmann N, Iberite M, Jiménez-Mejías P, Longo D, Marchetti D, Martini F, Masina RR, Medagli P, Peccenini S, Prosser F, Roma-Marzio F, Rosati L, Santangelo A, Scoppola A, Selvaggi A, Selvi F, Soldano A, Stinca A, Wagensommer RP, Wilhalm T, Conti F (2024) A second update to the checklist of the vascular flora native to Italy. Plant Biosystems, https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2024.2320126

Brundu G, Peruzzi L, Domina G, Bartolucci F, Galasso G, Peccenini S, et al. (2017) At the intersection of cultural and natural heritage: Distribution and conservation of the type localities of Italian endemic vascular plants. Biol. Cons. 214: 109–118.

Celesti-Grapow L, Alessandrini A, Arrigoni PV, Assini S, Banfi E, Barni E, et al. (2010) Non-native flora of Italy: species distribution and threats. Plant Biosyst. 144(1): 12–28.

Celesti-Grapow L, Alessandrini A, Arrigoni PV, Banfi E, Bernardo L, Bovio M, et al. (2009) Inventory of the non-native flora of Italy. Plant Biosyst. 143(2): 386–430.

Christenhusz MJM, Zhang X-C & Schneider H (2011a). A linear sequence of extant families and genera of lycophytes and ferns. Phytotaxa 19: 7–54.

Christenhusz MJM, Reveal JL, Farjon A, Gardner MF, Mill RR & Chase MW (2011b) A new classification and linear sequence of extant gymnosperms. Phytotaxa 19: 55–70.

Conti F, Abbate G, Alessandrini A & Blasi C (eds.) (2005) An annotated checklist of the Italian vascular flora. Palombi Editori, Roma.

Domina G, Peruzzi L & Bedini G (eds.) (2016 onwards) Wikiplantbase #Sicilia v. 2.1 http://bot.biologia.unipi.it/wpb/sicilia/index.html

Galasso G, Conti F, Peruzzi L, Ardenghi NMG, Banfi E, Celesti-Grapow L, Albano A, Alessandrini A, Bacchetta G, Ballelli S, et al. (2018) An updated checklist of the vascular flora alien to Italy. Plant Biosyst. 152(3): 556–592.

Galasso G, Domina G, Adorni M, Ardenghi NMG, Bonari G, Buono S, Cancellieri L, Chianese G, Ferretti G, Fiaschi T, et al. (2018b) Notulae to the Italian alien vascular flora: 5. Italian Botanist 5: 45–56. doi: 10.3897/italianbotanist.5.25910

Galasso G, Conti F, Peruzzi L, Alessandrini A, Ardenghi NMG, Bacchetta G, Banfi E, Barberis G, Bernardo L, Bouvet D, Bovio M, Castello M, Cecchi L, Del Guacchio E, Domina G, Fascetti S, Gallo L, Guarino R, Gubellini L, Guiggi A, Hofmann N, Iberite M, Jiménez-Mejías P, Longo D, Marchetti D, Martini F, Masin RR, Medagli P, Musarella CM, Peccenini S, Podda L, Prosser F, Roma-Marzio F, Rosati L, Santangelo A, Scoppola A, Selvaggi A, Selvi F, Soldano A, Stinca A, Wagensommer RP, Wilhalm T, Bartolucci F (2024) A second update to the checklist of the vascular flora alien to Italy. Plant Biosystems, https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2024.2320129

Martellos S & Nimis PL (2015) From Local Checklists to Online Identification Portals: A Case Study on Vascular Plants. PLoS ONE 10(3): e0120970. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120970.

Nimis PL & Martellos S (2009) Computer-aided Tools for Identifying Organisms and their Importance for Protected Areas. Eco.Mont., 1(2): 61–66.

Penzig O (1924) Flora Popolare Italiana. Opera Botanica. Mus. Tridentino di Scienze Naturali. Edagricole, Bologna, 2 voll. Ristampa 1972.

Peruzzi L & Bedini G (eds.) (2015 onwards) Wikiplantbase #Toscana v. 2.1 http://bot.biologia.unipi.it/wpb/toscana/index.html

Peruzzi L., Domina G, Bartolucci F, Galasso G, Peccenini S, Raimondo FM, et al. (2015) An inventory of the names of vascular plants endemic to Italy, their loci classici and types. Phytotaxa 196: 1–217.

Pignatti S (1982) Flora d’Italia. Edagricole, Bologna, 3 voll.

PPG I - Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group (2016) A community-derived classification for extant lycophytes and ferns. J. Syst. Evol. 54(6): 563–603.

Ran JH, Gao H & Wang X-Q (2010) Fast evolution of the retroprocessed mitochondrial rps3 gene in Conifer II and further evidence for the phylogeny of gymnosperms. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 54: 36–149.

Schuettpelz E & Pryer KM (2008) Fern phylogeny. In: Ranker TA & Haufler CH (eds.), Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 395–416.

Smith AR, Pryer KM, Schuettpelz E, Korall P, Schneider H & Wolf PG (2006) A classification for extant ferns. Taxon 55: 705–731.