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The vascular flora of the satellite islands of Sicily

indigenous pines once present on Lampedusa and Marettimo and has favoured
the establishment of several allochthonous trees and shrubs.
CONCLUDING REMARKS

A precious but endangered treasure
More than 300 vascular plants (i.e., about 20% of the total flora of the
circum-Sicilian islands) should be considered ‘noteworthy’ because of their
biogeographic interest, e.g. 129 regional or local endemics or taxa situated at
the latitudinal or longitudinal limit of their distribution area (Pasta, 1997).
Moreover, 49 out of 135 Sicilian plants included in the annexes and appendices
of the Bern and/or Washington (CITES) Conventions and/or the 92/43
EU Directive (Table 6) live also or only on circum-Sicilian islands. When
considering the two available regional red lists following IUCN risk categories,
182 of 660 and 118 of 1,057 extinct or threatened species reported by Conti
et al. (1997) and Raimondo et al. (2011), respectively, live on the considered
islands and islets.
Although Greuter (1991) emphasized the very high stability of
Mediterranean flora, over the last two centuries extinction has occurred much
more frequently than previously thought on many circum-Sicilian islands and
islets. In fact, two-thirds of those species that are extinct or extinct-in-the-wild
are microinsular endemics (Table 7), and many species that are protected and/
or included in Sicilian red lists have experienced local extinction or strong
rarefaction over recent decades. These include Allium subvillosum, Ambrosia
maritima, Arbutus unedo, Asphodelus tenuifolius, Asplenium balearicum,
Brassica macrocarpa, Calendula maritima, Cistus parviflorus, Cynomorium
coccineum, Daucus rupestris, Erica sicula subsp. sicula, Erucastrum virgatum,
Euphorbia papillaris, Glaucium corniculatum, Globularia alypum, Limonium
avei, Loeflingia hispanica, Ophrys lunulata, Orchis provincialis, Osmunda regalis,
Phyllitis sagittata, Pinus halepensis, Silene bellidifolia, Silene turbinata, Suaeda
vermiculata, among others.
In most cases, plant disappearance has been caused, or at least enhanced,
by human activities. This has undoubtedly been the case for Lampedusa and
Linosa, whose natural landscapes were rapidly disrupted during the second
half of the 19th century (Pasta & La Mantia, 2004). Many local extinctions
involved plants that were linked to the most fragile ecosystems, such as sandy
shores, dunes, brackish lagoons, temporary ponds, and forests; these habitats
have been strongly disturbed or completely destroyed by human activities and

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