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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.

In the European GLORIA project, 12 summits (treeline to nival belt) were inventoried in three regions of Switzerland: two in the Swiss National Park Graubünden and one in Valais. Vascular plants were recorded in all three regions and bryophytes and lichens were recorded only in Valais. On each summit, vegetation and temperature data were sampled using sampling protocols for the GLORIA project (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine environment) on large summit sections and in clusters of four 1x1-m quadrats. We observed a general decrease of species richness for all three systematic groups with increasing elevation in the summit sections, but only for vascular plants in the quadrats. In Valais, there was higher species richness for vascular plants than for bryophytes and lichens on the lower summits, but as the decrease in species richness was less pronounced for cryptogams, the latter were more numerous than vascular plants on the highest summit. Vascular species showed a clear shift of the dominant life form with elevation, with chamaephytes replacing hemicryptophytes. Bryophytes and lichens showed a weak trend among the life forms at the summit section scale, but a stronger shift of the dominant forms was seen in the quadrats, with cushion replacing turf bryophytes and crustaceous replacing fruticose lichens. Altogether, these results sustain the temperature-physiographic hypothesis to explain the species richness decrease along the altitudinal gradient: the harsh climatic conditions of the alpine-nival belts act as a filter for species, but the diminishing diversity of microhabitats is also an important factor. Because cryptogams depend more on humidity than temperature and more on smaller microhabitats than vascular plants, the decrease of species richness is more gradual with elevation for bryophytes and lichens.

In this contribution, new data concerning bryophytes, fungi, and lichens of the Italian flora are presented. It includes new records and confirmations for the bryophyte genera Barbula, Fissidens, Gymnostomum, Jungermannia, Riccia, and Scapania, the fungal genera Hyalopsora and Urocystis and the lichen genera Arthothelium, Chaenotheca, Lepraria, Lobaria, Miriquidica, Parmelia, Rinodina, Solenopsora, Thelopsis and Xanthoparmelia.

La nuova Lista Rossa della flora Italiana comprende tutte le "policy" specie italiane e altre specie di nota conservazione e comprende 400 taxa di cui il 65% sono minacciate di estinzione. La Lista Rossa si basa su un enorme data-set georeferenziato utile per gli scopi di conservazione. - The New Red List of the Italian Flora includes all the Italian policy species and other species of known conservation concerns for a total of 400 taxa, 65% of which are threatened with extinction. The Red List is based on a huge georeferenced data-set useful for conservation purposes.