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Biodiversity Journal, 2012, 3 (4): 363-368

Geophytes and evolution in the Sicilian Archipelago

Pietro Mazzola*, Rosario Schicchi & Sebastiano Ciccarello

Dipartimento di Scienze agrarie e forestali, Università degli Studi di Palermo, via Archirafi 38 - 90123 Palermo, Italy
*Corresponding author: pietro.mazzola@unipa.it

ABSTRACT Geophytes occurring in the Sicilian archipelago are examined with respect to their distribution
and evolution, and also taking into account correlations with the inner parts of this territory
and other regions in the central Mediterranean.

KEY WORDS Biogeography; geophytes; endemism; insularity.

Received 11.05.2012; accepted 09.12.2012; printed 30.12.2012
Proceedings of the 1st International Congress “Insularity and Biodiversity”, May 11th-13th, 2012 - Palermo (Italy)

INTRODUCTION clusive to the archipelago. Owing to these studies,
Sicily is nowadays considered among the better sur-
According to Raimondo et al. (2010) the vascu- veyed in the Mediterranean basin (Raimondo, 1988;
lar flora of Sicily and surrounding islands is made Brullo et al., 1995) as far as flora, taxonomy and bio-
of 3252 taxa of specific and lower ranks, among geography are concerned. The knowledge of this
which Angiosperms are 3173, including 2463 dico- plant richness and diversity can be still more impro-
tyledons and 710 monocotyledons. ved by correlating endemism, karyology, insularity
and other heterogeneous factors possibly suitable
Several comprehensive works on such plant he- (when taken together into account) to clarify specific
ritage have been carried out since the seventeenth problematic aspects of biogeographical nature.
century (Boccone, 1674; Cupani, 1696-1697; Ucria, Some remarks referring to geophytes are presented
1789; Gussone, 1842-1845; Lojacono Pojero, 1888- here with respect to their evolution.
1909; Giardina et al., 2007; Raimondo & Spadaro,
2009), together with a large number of other contri- MATERIALS AND METHODS
butions (cfr. Raimondo et al., 1982) mainly dealing
with the most important fields of traditional botani- In order to mark connections or isolation phases
cal interest like floristics, taxonomy, history, etc., in which the archipelago was involved, plants with
and, in addition, relationships with other Mediterra- a geophyte life form have been selected since they
nean countries (Lojacono Pojero, 1888-1909), ge- are perennial and their ranges apparently vary slo-
neral characteristics of biology and chorology (Di wly. The taxa taken in consideration belong to the
Martino & Raimondo, 1979), phytogeographical de- families Orchidaceae and Liliaceae s.l.. They are in
limitation of the Sicilian floristic domain (“Dominio part endemic to the whole archipelago (including
siculo”) (Brullo et al., 1995), etc. More recently Rai- Malta, in some cases) and in part to small islands
mondo & Spadaro (2011) analyzed critically this
flora and listed 502 endemics, 322 of which are ex-