In 1766, the agricultural scientist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti described for the Grand Duchy of T... more In 1766, the agricultural scientist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti described for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the wild and cultivated plant species that could be used, in times of famine, to increase the quantity of flour or vegetable mass in bread making. These wild plants can be defined as wild edible plants (WEPs) or “alimurgic species”, a concept usually traced back to Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti himself. The 342 plant names mentioned in the text are in the Tuscan vernacular, so a research work was done on bibliographic sources from the 1800s in order to match them with their current nomenclature. This process led to an “alimurgic flora” repertoire based on the writing of Targioni Tozzetti; and a comparison with our AlimurgITA database of 1103 wild edible plants used in Italy. It is particularly interesting that in his short treatise, Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti identified eight toxic plants (corresponding to 14 species), indicating how to eliminate the poisonous substances from their ...
The forest vegetation on the sandstone bedrock in the Val d’Aso (Marche, Italy). Results of a phy... more The forest vegetation on the sandstone bedrock in the Val d’Aso (Marche, Italy). Results of a phytosociological study on the wood on the sandstone bedrock are here presented. The studied area is located in the southern part of Marche Region, Ascoli Piceno Province, under the influence of temperate climate (lower/higher mesotemperate and lower supratemperate bioclimatic belts). The vegetation study has been performed throught 119 phytosociological relevés. All data were submitted to multivariate statistical analysis. The phytosociology analysis has permitted to characterize 6 associations, whereof 2 news: Erico arboreae-Quercetum pubescentis ericetosum arboreae and Hieracio murori-Ostryetum carpinifoliae hieracietosum murori. Chorological and synecological datas were described in the paper, compared to the corresponding associations of the limestones bedrock of the neighbouring area.
Despite the large number of data published in Italy on WEPs, there is no database providing a com... more Despite the large number of data published in Italy on WEPs, there is no database providing a complete knowledge framework. Hence the need to design a database of the Italian alimurgic flora: AlimurgITA. Only strictly alimurgic taxa were chosen, excluding casual alien and cultivated ones. The collected data come from an archive of 358 texts (books and scientific articles) from 1918 to date, chosen with appropriate criteria. For each taxon, the part of the plant used, the method of use, the chorotype, the biological form and the regional distribution in Italy were considered. The 1103 taxa of edible flora already entered in the database equal 13.09% of Italian flora. The most widespread family is that of the Asteraceae (20.22%); the most widely used taxa are Cichorium intybus and Borago officinalis. The not homogeneous regional distribution of WEPs (maximum in the south and minimum in the north) has been interpreted. Texts published reached its peak during the 2001–2010 decade. A dat...
From a data base of the Italian phytosociological relevés of the Italian vegetation under ongoing... more From a data base of the Italian phytosociological relevés of the Italian vegetation under ongoing development, the sample plots of oak forests in the peninsular regions of Italy and neighboring islands have been extracted and their distribution has been examined. This archive is basically aimed to the parameterization of phytosociological units in order to verify their ecological and biogeographical robustness. At present the data base stores 70% of the existing sources in literature. The selected material corresponds to the communities at the level of association ranked into the orders of Querceta specifically dominated by oaks, recorded in the territories south of the watershed of Northern Apennines (peninsular Italy): Quercetalia ilicis, Quercetalia calliprini, Quercetalia pubescenti-petraeae, Quercetalia robori-petraeae. The dataset used in this study is based on the sample plots identified as representative for different associations, described up to now in the certified botani...
Populations of xerotolerant species (Achnatherum calamagrostis, Stipa crassiculmis subsp. picenti... more Populations of xerotolerant species (Achnatherum calamagrostis, Stipa crassiculmis subsp. picentina, are scattered along a wide altitudinal gradient on slopes at mid- and high elevation in Monti Picentini, a subcoastal mesozoic limestone ridge in Tyrrhenian Southern Italy. Their stands are widespread in grasslands of mostly secondary origin. At lower altitudes these grasslands replace former deciduous forest communities dominated by oaks or beech, while at higher altitudes they reach the summits, where they apparently merge into the remnants of the still partially grazed, zonal climatogenic, grasslands ranging above the local tree-line. Nevertheless primary stands of these grasslands are to be found around the many clusters of highly dynamic sites of the montane and sub-alpine levels, scattered around screes and rocky outcrops of the prevalently dolomitic morphology of the slopes. This virtual continuity of non arboreal communities across more than 1000 metres of the local topograph...
Current methodological praxis in present day plant ecology and vegetation science, makes remarkab... more Current methodological praxis in present day plant ecology and vegetation science, makes remarkably difficult to treat topics dealing with floristic changes along gradients, when qualitative aspects, based on biogeographical patterns are involved. Due to this, some outstanding “anomalies” in the altitudinal zonation of vegetation in southern Apennines and in the main islands, have traditionally been neglected or underestimated in their explanatory capacity for long-term vegetation processes. In this sense, patterns of floristic changes along topographical gradients observed in the Southern Italian ridges, from Monti Picentini (Campania) to Etna (Sicily) might be crucial for the interpretation of events and genesis of the plant cover of that part of peninsular Italy. Here, the local ranges of some emblematic species are taken into account. Similarity in their sequences along local “catenas” with analogues in other regions of Southern Eurasia, are here used to infer modes of colonizat...
In 1766, the agricultural scientist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti described for the Grand Duchy of T... more In 1766, the agricultural scientist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti described for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the wild and cultivated plant species that could be used, in times of famine, to increase the quantity of flour or vegetable mass in bread making. These wild plants can be defined as wild edible plants (WEPs) or “alimurgic species”, a concept usually traced back to Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti himself. The 342 plant names mentioned in the text are in the Tuscan vernacular, so a research work was done on bibliographic sources from the 1800s in order to match them with their current nomenclature. This process led to an “alimurgic flora” repertoire based on the writing of Targioni Tozzetti; and a comparison with our AlimurgITA database of 1103 wild edible plants used in Italy. It is particularly interesting that in his short treatise, Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti identified eight toxic plants (corresponding to 14 species), indicating how to eliminate the poisonous substances from their ...
The forest vegetation on the sandstone bedrock in the Val d’Aso (Marche, Italy). Results of a phy... more The forest vegetation on the sandstone bedrock in the Val d’Aso (Marche, Italy). Results of a phytosociological study on the wood on the sandstone bedrock are here presented. The studied area is located in the southern part of Marche Region, Ascoli Piceno Province, under the influence of temperate climate (lower/higher mesotemperate and lower supratemperate bioclimatic belts). The vegetation study has been performed throught 119 phytosociological relevés. All data were submitted to multivariate statistical analysis. The phytosociology analysis has permitted to characterize 6 associations, whereof 2 news: Erico arboreae-Quercetum pubescentis ericetosum arboreae and Hieracio murori-Ostryetum carpinifoliae hieracietosum murori. Chorological and synecological datas were described in the paper, compared to the corresponding associations of the limestones bedrock of the neighbouring area.
Despite the large number of data published in Italy on WEPs, there is no database providing a com... more Despite the large number of data published in Italy on WEPs, there is no database providing a complete knowledge framework. Hence the need to design a database of the Italian alimurgic flora: AlimurgITA. Only strictly alimurgic taxa were chosen, excluding casual alien and cultivated ones. The collected data come from an archive of 358 texts (books and scientific articles) from 1918 to date, chosen with appropriate criteria. For each taxon, the part of the plant used, the method of use, the chorotype, the biological form and the regional distribution in Italy were considered. The 1103 taxa of edible flora already entered in the database equal 13.09% of Italian flora. The most widespread family is that of the Asteraceae (20.22%); the most widely used taxa are Cichorium intybus and Borago officinalis. The not homogeneous regional distribution of WEPs (maximum in the south and minimum in the north) has been interpreted. Texts published reached its peak during the 2001–2010 decade. A dat...
From a data base of the Italian phytosociological relevés of the Italian vegetation under ongoing... more From a data base of the Italian phytosociological relevés of the Italian vegetation under ongoing development, the sample plots of oak forests in the peninsular regions of Italy and neighboring islands have been extracted and their distribution has been examined. This archive is basically aimed to the parameterization of phytosociological units in order to verify their ecological and biogeographical robustness. At present the data base stores 70% of the existing sources in literature. The selected material corresponds to the communities at the level of association ranked into the orders of Querceta specifically dominated by oaks, recorded in the territories south of the watershed of Northern Apennines (peninsular Italy): Quercetalia ilicis, Quercetalia calliprini, Quercetalia pubescenti-petraeae, Quercetalia robori-petraeae. The dataset used in this study is based on the sample plots identified as representative for different associations, described up to now in the certified botani...
Populations of xerotolerant species (Achnatherum calamagrostis, Stipa crassiculmis subsp. picenti... more Populations of xerotolerant species (Achnatherum calamagrostis, Stipa crassiculmis subsp. picentina, are scattered along a wide altitudinal gradient on slopes at mid- and high elevation in Monti Picentini, a subcoastal mesozoic limestone ridge in Tyrrhenian Southern Italy. Their stands are widespread in grasslands of mostly secondary origin. At lower altitudes these grasslands replace former deciduous forest communities dominated by oaks or beech, while at higher altitudes they reach the summits, where they apparently merge into the remnants of the still partially grazed, zonal climatogenic, grasslands ranging above the local tree-line. Nevertheless primary stands of these grasslands are to be found around the many clusters of highly dynamic sites of the montane and sub-alpine levels, scattered around screes and rocky outcrops of the prevalently dolomitic morphology of the slopes. This virtual continuity of non arboreal communities across more than 1000 metres of the local topograph...
Current methodological praxis in present day plant ecology and vegetation science, makes remarkab... more Current methodological praxis in present day plant ecology and vegetation science, makes remarkably difficult to treat topics dealing with floristic changes along gradients, when qualitative aspects, based on biogeographical patterns are involved. Due to this, some outstanding “anomalies” in the altitudinal zonation of vegetation in southern Apennines and in the main islands, have traditionally been neglected or underestimated in their explanatory capacity for long-term vegetation processes. In this sense, patterns of floristic changes along topographical gradients observed in the Southern Italian ridges, from Monti Picentini (Campania) to Etna (Sicily) might be crucial for the interpretation of events and genesis of the plant cover of that part of peninsular Italy. Here, the local ranges of some emblematic species are taken into account. Similarity in their sequences along local “catenas” with analogues in other regions of Southern Eurasia, are here used to infer modes of colonizat...
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