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6 Giardina & al.: A catalogue of plants growing in Sicily

extensive and well developed beech forests, including plants scarcely found elsewhere out-
side the beech domain. Furthermore on the Nebrodi Mountains, clayey substrata allow,
under suitable geo-morphological conditions, the formation of moist depressions, brooks
and ponds (locally known as “margi”, “urghi”, “gurghi”), where a rich and great variety of
hygrophilous species is found. The northern range is delimited westward by the Madonie
Mountains, that are mainly characterized by Carbonate soils among which the Monte
Quacella area with its very rich and quite peculiar flora stands out so that it was defined
by Lojacono-Pojero (1886) as the “Sicilian Alps”. In eastern part, the Etna volcano which
arises 3300 m a. s.l. represents an extraordinary orographic element for the island. Its dis-
tinctive flora, includes remarkable neo-endemic elements. The extreme southern part of the
island is characterized by the limestone complex of the Iblei Mountains and by extensive
areas made by sand substrata originated by intensive erosion dated back to the Pliocene
and Pleistocene periods. The Iblei Mountains – thanks also to remote Aegean connections
– present clear relations with the eastern-Mediterranean elements. This area is very simi-
lar to the North-African lands. Finally, the central part of Sicily is constituted by Messinian
evaporitic deposit (clay, marls, chalks), on which a peculiar flora has gradually developed
including some endemics.
The floristic richness of Sicily has always interested local and foreign scholars as well
as travellers who have been fascinated by the possibility to visit different habitats so close
to each other. In a pre-linnean times most of the well equipped Research Centers found
place in religious buildings, where scholars such as S. Boccone (1633-1704) and F. Cupani
(1657-1710) could develop their study. The latter published an illustrated catalogue con-
taining 2000 different plants. After the advent of the linnean binomial system, the first
attempt of extensive interpretation of the peculiarities of the Sicilian flora is due to G.
Gussone (1787-1866), who in its works listed more than 3530 specific and infraspecific
taxa (species and varieties). In the same years, in the new academic center of Palermo V.
Tineo (1791-1856) – after a long exploration across the island – collected an extensive
amount of data that, although remained unpublished, was available to his contemporaries
as well as to his future students. Similarly, A. Todaro (1818-1892) spread a remarkable
amount of exsiccata, which became well known in great part of Europe. In the meantime,
other foreign scholars were also interested in exploring extensive parts of Sicily. Among
these C.B. Presl (1794-1852), contemporary of Tineo and Gussone, had already produced
th
a catalogue containing about 1820 taxa. Subsequently – in the second half of the 19 cen-
tury – Strobl (1846-1925), working around the Etna and Madonie areas (i.e. up to a recent
past the term “Nebrodi” was used to identify the Madonie Mountains), added further con-
tributions to the present stage of the botanical research.
Thanks to the contributions of these authors, M. Lojacono-Pojero (1888-1909) was able
to publish Flora Sicula, a work in which he reported the presence of 4227 Sicilian taxa (for
more details on the history of Botany in Sicily, see Raimondo 1988). From the time of
Lojacono (1853-1919) almost a century has passed and many aspects of botanical science
have been growing: many species have been separated, re-assembled, or even placed in
more appropriated genera. However, although new taxa have been discovered, it can be
concluded that until 1975 the cognitive progress has been rather slow. The developments
in taxonomic studies suffered a period of stasis from the 1920s to the 1970s. The field stud-
ies on flora, taxonomy and systematics nearly completely disappeared also in the interest