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Due to its location, Sicily has always represented an important biogeographic bridge between floras of temperate and tropical climates as well as between those of the western and eastern Mediterranean. Its central position in the Mediterranean was also key factor of a millenary history of human settlements which resulted in profound landscape changes in the past, but even at present human pressure continues to be very heavy. In spite of this, Sicily is part of one of the 10 most important hotspots in Mediterranean Basin, thanks to plant richness and endemism (Médail & Quézel 1999: Conserv. Biol. 13(6): 1510-1513). The bryophyte flora, including ca. 600 taxa (almost half of Italian bryoflora), is, as well as vascular flora, very rich and likewise threatened. A first list of 182 endangered species of Sicily and small islands around it was compiled by Campisi & al. (2003: Intern. Sem. on Harmonization of Red Lists for threatened species, pp. 241-275), but a precise category of threat was not assigned to taxa. The establishment of a complete Red List is fundamental to bryophyte conservation in Sicily a fortiori because it is an Italian region with legislative and administrative autonomy in the field of environmental protection. The project, here presented, has just been started with regard to liverworts and hornworts. It takes into account specific guidelines for bryophytes as well as the IUCN criteria. As to the latter, however, it was considered appropriate to adopt some changes to avoid an overestimate of endangered species, following a procedure similar to the one adopted by González-Mancebo & al. (2012: Biodivers. Conserv. 21: 3613-3636.) for the compilation of Red List of the Canary Islands. For assigning threat categories, therefore, we opted for scaling the thresholds set of the Extent of Occurrence (EOO) and of the location number. Besides a red list the project provides for the realization of atlas of top 50 bryophyte taxa for which sheets with description, general and Sicilian distribution, ecology, EOO and AOO, the main threats and status in Sicily will be reported. Some examples of sheets of rare liverworts in the island are illustrated.

Italy represents a biodiversity hot spot in the Mediterranean area. To monitor and defend its great “natural patrimony”, coherently with the Europe Strategy for Plant Conservation (EPCS, 2002) and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 (2011), the Italian Ministry of Environment, land and sea protection supported a national project to compile the first Red List of Italian flora (Rossi et al. 2013) according to IUCN criteria (2001), coordinated by the Italian Botanical Society. For Italian bryophytes the first red lists were compiled by Cortini Pedrotti & Aleffi (1992) for mosses and Aleffi & Schumacker (1995) for liverworts and hornworts. To update these lists the Working Group for Bryology of the Italian Botanical Society joined the National project and compiled a red list of bryophytes: the species taken into account are 61 [43 Policy Species (PS) and 18 Non Policy Species (NPS)]. 34% of the taxa are CR and EN, mainly due to the high number of NPS. Three bryophytes were categorized as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). Several bryophytes were categorized as Data Deficient (DD) because the available data did not permit a reliable assessment (e.g. Sphagnum spp.). To fill this gaps, in the last few years researchers started to include information coming from herbaria collected from Italian and European Institutions. Most of the data were made before 1980s and they refer to sites that have been altered drastically and, thus, require new explorations to verify whether these species are still present. The use of bibliographical data and herbarium samples are fundamental to launch new studies to monitor, also in the light of recent discoveries, the current situation of these species.

This work is part of a study of bryophyte floras of Sicilian towns that has highlighted the presence in these environments of interesting taxa from the taxonomic and phytogeographical point of view (1, 2, 3, 4). Given its location, perched at 750 m a.s.l. on the S. Giuliano Mount at the northwestern tip of Sicily, the town of Erice has a climate which, although typically Mediterranean, has a strong wet connotation for the frequent presence of fog, especially in the winter time. These features contribute to creating conditions particularly suited to host bryophytes that grow both on artifacts and on phorophytes present in the city and specially in the Balio urban park. The study has allowed to find 53 taxa including 43 mosses and 10 liverworts. Taxonomic, chorological and ecological features of this bryoflora well accord with the geographical position and mesoclimatic characters of site. A comparison with the brioflora of other Sicilian towns shows it is a quite rich brioflora with a high incidence of oceanic-Mediterranean taxa. Finally, the presence of the taxon, Scorpiurium sendtneri (Schimp.) M.Fleisch., rare moss in Europe, is noteworthy.

The landscape is commonly defined as the set of physical and historical-anthropological characters expressed by a territory. Our re-elaboration defines the landscape as the set of perceivable characters of a territory expressed in relation to the stratification of the occurred natural and cultural processes. The Grand Tour reports are one of the most effective means to fix at least one stage of evolution from the Sicilian landscape, before its further transformation. These reports provide often a stereotypical image of the landscape of the Island, in particular as regards the major archaeological areas subjected to particular attention by the cultured travellers. The authors summarize the characters of the plant landscape of the main Sicilian archaeological areas, through the analysis of both the rich documentation handed down by travellers, in particular of the Grand Tour, and the descriptions of some naturalists who visited the region, between the second half of the 18th and the whole 19th century portraying and /or describing the most expressive places of its classicism. In the landscape of these areas, the ruins are almost always framed by men in transit or in front of the archaeological remains or in the surrounding area dedicated to the livestock care, with sparse trees and bushes, sometimes constituted by exotic elements very incisive for the travellers,in majority European from across the Alps; being unknown in the travellers’countriesthey represented very attractive subjects. In fact, Opuntia ficus-indica, Agave americana and the historicized Phoenix dactylifera are frequent. Among the indigenous elements we can recognize Olea europaea, Ceratonia siliqua, Ficus carica and other species of leafy trees, partly survived and still present on the margins of the ancient temples and theatres. Among these there would be Celtis australis, Fraxinus ornus, Quercus ilex, Ulmus canescens. In the archaeological landscapes of the time, pines and cypresses are missing: these trees were already introduced and widespread in Italy in Roman times but they appeared around the Sicilian archaeological areas starting from the late nineteenth century. The subject of this demonstration is presented by relating some photographic images of the places – obviously later - beginning with the Alinari Archive (end of the 800s beginning of the 20th century), with reproductions of iconographic documents by J.P.L.L. Houel (1782-87), P. Brydone (1806), R. Saint-Non (1785), J.W. Goethe (1787) and other travellers (J.F. D'Ostervald, 1822-24; D.-D. Farjasse, 1835; C. A. Schneegans, 1890 and G. Vuillier, 1893). In this path of great utility was the reading of the travel diaries of some naturalists, in particular C.S. Rafinesque Schmaltz (1810) and K. Presl (1817).

Bryological Notes