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Geophytes and evolution in the Sicilian Archipelago 365

Figure 2. Ophrys pallida, endemic to Sicily from the Ma- Figure 3. Orchis brancifortii, endemic to Sicily, S-Calabria

donie Mountains to westwards. and Sardinia.

cies as G. chrysantha A. Terracc., G. nebrodensis ral insularity of Sicily. As far as the Nebrodi and
(Tod. ex Guss) Nyman, G. granatelli (Parl.) Parl. Peloritani Mountains are concerned (in spite of
G. dubia A. Terrracc., and with G. pratensis (Pers.) these areas are characterized by several noteworthy
Dumort., G. lutea (L.) Ker-Gawl. in the Nebrodi local endemics like Petagnaea gussonei (Spreng.)
and Peloritani Mountains (the northeastern district Rauschert, the unique representative of a monospe-
together with the Madonie and the Etna Mountains, cific genus, besides Carduus rugulosus Guss., Cir-
(Brullo et al., 1995), while G. trinervia (Viv.) Greu- sium vallis-demonii Lojac. etc. in the Nebrodi;
ter is found in South-Eastern Sicily. Centaurera seguenzae (Lacaita) Brullo, Centaurea
tauromenitana Guss., etc.), geophytes generally
About this incomplete list, it is to be noted that mark repeated contacts with Italy through the sou-
most taxa have not been confirmed recently (Pe- thern Calabria. Some of these are the orchids Dac-
ruzzi & Tison, 2005). This, neither from the taxo- tylorhiza sambucina (L.) Soó, Orchis morio L.,
nomical point of view, nor as far as distribution Polygonatum gussonei Parl. (Convallariaceae), Fri-
aspects are concerned. It is, nevertheless, interesting tillaria messanensis Raf. (Liliaceae), Aristolochia
to state that there are at least two localities, on the lutea Desf. (Aristolochiaceae) (2n = 8), A. clemati-
Busambra and surrounding mountains and on the tis L. (2n = 14).
top of the Madonie, where individual morphologi-
cal diversity is so intensive that they could be con- Indeed, as Nardi (1984) pointed out, the genus
sidered as true centres of local variation. Regarding Aristolochia can clarify some taxonomic and phy-
the Madonie Mountains (the “Pizzo delle Case”, at togeographical relationships between Sicily and
1850 m a.s.l.), such high variation has skilfully other surrounding regions. In particular, apart from
been illustrated by the nineteenth naturalist France- the two above mentioned species and A. sicula
sco Minà Palumbo (2011). On the other hand, the Tineo (2n = 16), a taxonomically isolated endemic
genus, being largely distributed, refers to the gene- to the Madonie, Nebrodi, Peloritani mountains and