The Vegetation Prodrome of Italy was promoted in 2012 by the Italian "Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea Protection", in collaboration with the "Italian Society of Botany", to provide a comprehensive and systematic catalogue and description of Italian plant communities. The Prodrome that is presented in this paper is the first full organic synthesis of the vegetation of Italy at the alliance syntaxonomic level. It fulfils several needs, the main one being a unified and comprehensive national framework that may make an important contribution to the definition of the European Vegetation Prodrome. Syntaxonomy, as well as taxonomy, is sometimes based on considerations that may in part diverge: several authors tend to favour models that are divisive or aggregative to a greater or lesser extent in terms of flora, biogeography and ecology. These different points of view stimulate the scientific debate and allow the adoption of a framework that is more widely supported. The Prodrome includes 75 classes, 2 subclasses, 175 orders, 6 suborders and 393 alliances. The classes were grouped into nine broad categories according to structural, physiognomic and synecological elements rather than to syntaxonomic criteria. The rank, full valid name, any synonymies and incorrect names are provided for each syntaxon. The short declaration highlights the physiognomy, synecology, syndynamics and distribution of the plant communities that belong to the syntaxon. The Prodrome of the Italian Vegetation is linked to the European Strategy for Biodiversity, the European Habitats Directive and the European Working Groups related to the ecosystems and their services. In addition to basic applications, the Prodrome can be used as a framework for scientific research related to the investigation of the relationships between plant communities and the environmental factors that influence their composition and distribution
Hygrophilous forests and scrubs are ecotonal habitats providing essential ecosystem services, especially in human-modified landscapes; nevertheless, they are among the most threatened habitats worldwide. A sound knowledge of waterside woody vegetation provides a valuable basis for interventions of renaturation of waterbodies. This paper focuses on peculiar communities that occur in riparian and swamp areas of the Po Plain, a broad ecotonal area between the Mediterranean and Temperate regions. The study allowed the description of six new associations. Moreover, it provides a detailed picture of Dioscoreo communis-Populetum nigrae (Populetalia albae) and Amorpho fruticosae-Salicetum albae (Salicetalia purpureae), an overview of Salicetum triandrae (Salicetalia purpureae) at the national and European level, and an update of the alliance Dioscoreo-Ulmion minoris, which is better characterized, classified in Populetalia albae and enlarged to include five associations of elm-oak-rich forests of the Po Plain lowlands and the Karst. Dioscoreo-Ulmion includes, besides Lamio orvalae-Ulmetum minoris, also Polygonato-Quercetum roboris and three new associations: Vinco minoris-Ulmetum minoris and Salvio glutinosae-Quercetum roboris from Po Plain rivers and the karstic lakeshore Rhamno catharticae-Ulmetum minoris. The new arrangement of Dioscoreo-Ulmion results from an analysis of Po Plain elm-rich forests including stands so far attributed to the critical alliance Alnion incanae; the presence of Querco-Ulmetum minoris in Italy is discussed. Two new associations are attributed to Prunetalia spinosae: Salici eleagni-Juniperetum communis and Ulmo minoris-Paliuretum spinae-christi. Stands from the Rivers Isonzo and Tagliamento referred to Veratro nigri-Fraxinetum excelsioris and to the new association Carici albae-Fraxinetum excelsioris represent the outermost expressions of the Ostryo-Tilion ravine forests extending towards the High Plain. A Salix alba swamp forest, Galio palustris-Salicetum albae, is reported for the first time in Italy and attributed to Alnetea glutinosae.
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