The orophilous communities of the Pino‐Juniperetea class in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean area

Abstract

Orophilous plant communities of the Pino‐Juniperetea class, occurring in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean area, are examined. This vegetation is characterized by the dominance of trees and shrubs, mostly represented by conifers belonging to the genera Juniperus, Abies and Pinus. These communities are nowadays relegated to the supra‐ and oromediterranean belt, and show a fragmentary distribution, which is an evident proof of their relict connotation. The comparison among these communities, based on original and literature data, has highlighted a remarkable floristic and structural homogeneity, together with a series of geographical vicariances. From the phytosociological point of view, this justifies the arrangement of the aforesaid communities in the class Pino‐Juniperetea RIVAS‐MARTÍNEZ 1964, whose range is therefore extended to the whole Mediterranean basin. In the Central and Eastern Mediterranean area, the class is represented by the order Juniperetalia hemisphaericae, which comprises two new alliances: Berberidion aetnensis, restricted to the Central Mediterranean area, and Berberido creticae‐Juniperion foetidissimae, distributed in the Eastern Mediterranean area. Both of them have been on its turn split up in some suballiances, to emphasize the floristic autonomy of some well‐defined phytogeographical districts. The identified associations, many of them new to science, are examined from the nomenclatural, floristical, ecological, structural and chorological point of view. New groups described pp. 265 ff.

Mid- and late-Holocene vegetation and fire history at Biviere di Gela, a coastal lake in southern Sicily, Italy

“…Pollen grains were identified using pollen keys and atlases (Punt et al 1976(Punt et al -2003Moore et al 1991;Reille 1992Reille -1998Beug 2004) and the reference collection at the Institute of Plant Sciences of the University of Bern, Switzerland. Quercus pollen was subdivided according to Beug (2004) into three morphological groups: (1) Quercus suber-type, which also includes Q. cerris; (2) Quercus pubescens-type, including the deciduous oaks except Q. cerris; and (3) Quercus ilex-type, (Brullo et al 2001). The pollen diagrams were constructed using TILIA 2.0.b.4 and TgView 2.0.2 (Grimm 1992(Grimm -2005.…”

Floristic Traits and Biogeographic Characterization of the Gennargentu Massif (Sardinia)

“…Gennargentu is the main mountain complex of Sardinia and since the beginning of the 18 th century it became a popular destination for botanical investigations (MORIS, 1827(MORIS, , 1837(MORIS, -1859BARBEY, 1885;MARTELLI, 1896MARTELLI, -1904HERZOG, 1909;SCHMID, 1933;DESOLE, 1948DESOLE, , 1966ARRIGONI, 1966ARRIGONI, , 1986BRULLO & al., 2001), that led to the description of several new taxa (PIGNATTI & FEOLI, 1974;ARRIGONI & al., 1977ARRIGONI & al., -1991PIGNATTI & al., 1980;BACCHETTA & al., 2000 and to the analysis of the conservation status of some threatened taxa (FENU & al., 2011(FENU & al., , 2012. In spite of the relevant information provided by the abundant literature, an organic review on the vascular flora of Gennargentu was still missing, as well as floristic checklists for the whole massif or single parts of it.…”

Syntaxonomic synopsis of the forest and tall scrub vegetation of Northern Algeria

“…The 6 associations (or plant communities) of this are representives of this Mediterranean montane vegetation as known from the Iberian Peninsula (Juniperetalia hemisphaericae; Rivas-Martínez et al, 1999) and the Eastern Mediterranean (Brullo et al, 2001; see also Mucina et al, 2016 for the formal description of the new Berberido creticae-Juniperetalia excelsae). The high-altitude juniper-dominated scrub and open woodlands have been considered 'presteppic forest type' (e.g.…”