A new plant community with the strictly endemic "Cirsium alpis-lunae" (Asteraceae) in the Northern Apennines (Italy) and considerations on the alliances "Senecionion samniti" and "Adenostylion alpinae"

Abstract

We conducted a phytosociological study of the particular coenoses with presence of Cirsium alpis-lunae, a strictly endemic species living in marly-arenaceous montane screes of the Apennines between Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Marche. We surveyed all the reported locations and analyzed the coenological and ecological features of the communities by means of standard statistical methods, describing a new association, Laserpitio latifolii-Cirsietum alpis-lunae. We attributed the new association to Mulgedio-Aconitetea, but we noted in the literature some nomenclatural misinterpretations concerning the syntaxonomic treatment of this Apennine vegetation at the order and alliance level. We found that Adenostylion alpinae is the most suitable alliance to encompass Laserpitio latifolii-Cirsietum alpis-lunae and it cannot be considered a synonym of Senecionion samniti. Senecionion samniti was here lectotypified, and seems to be closer to Molinio-Arrhenetheretea than to Mulgedio-Aconitetea.

Persistence of the Strictly Endemic Plants of Forest Margins: The Case of Cirsium alpis-lunae in the Northern Apennines (Italy)

“…The C. alpis-lunae populations mainly consist of a low number of plants, generally restricted to small surface areas at the edge of wooded areas. Despite the great difficulties in accessing the sites where this species grows, this study presents, for the first time, a complete and exhaustive picture of the C. alpis-lunae populations, although a margin of uncertainty in the numbers must be considered due to the difficulties in accessing the investigated sites [ 64 ].…”

“…The open areas colonised by C. alpis-lunae are generally in contact with neighbouring Fagus sylvatica-dominated woods [ 64 ]. In this context, the C. alpis-lunae populations were at a small-scale dynamic equilibrium due to the ecological heterogeneity found at forest edges and mediated between the small population size and the peculiar ecological conditions that limit the development of canopy cover.…”

“…Cirsium alpis-lunae typically lives on humid and unstable steep slopes, on open, well-drained earthy screes derived from sandstone–marly flysch substrata, at altitudes between 1100 and 1300 m a.s.l. C. alpis-lunae needs a good water availability, mainly supplied by the rainfalls, and, according to its ecological requirements, it can be considered markedly meso-hygrophilous, microthermal, and rather nitrophilous [ 54 , 64 ]. The open areas colonised by C. alpis-lunae are generally small and in contact with neighbouring forests dominated by Fagus sylvatica [ 54 , 64 ].…”

“…C. alpis-lunae needs a good water availability, mainly supplied by the rainfalls, and, according to its ecological requirements, it can be considered markedly meso-hygrophilous, microthermal, and rather nitrophilous [ 54 , 64 ]. The open areas colonised by C. alpis-lunae are generally small and in contact with neighbouring forests dominated by Fagus sylvatica [ 54 , 64 ].…”

“…et Gubellini; it is a strictly endemic yellow-flowered thistle, growing exclusively in a small area of the northern Apennines, and was recently discovered and described [ 54 ]. Its occurrence was reported in local and national floristic and vegetation studies [ 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ] and, only recently, the communities where it grows were investigated from synecological and syntaxonomic points of view [ 64 ]. Despite its conservation relevance highlighted by several authors [ 6 , 62 ], no basic study on its population size, structure, and dynamics, as well as its ecological requirements, has ever been carried out, mainly because of the extreme difficulty in accessing its typical sites of occurrence.…”