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Eco-Geography and Taxonomy of Plants in the Mediterranean Area
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Eco-Geography and Taxonomy of Plants in the Mediterranean Area

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Systematics, Taxonomy, Nomenclature and Classification".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 6240

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Salvatore Brullo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Interests: Mediterranean flora; endemic species; taxonomy; plant morphology; systematics; high mountain vegetation; phytosociology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Cristina Salmeri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
Interests: plant taxonomy; biosystematics; ecomorphology; plant anatomy; functional traits; mediterranean flora; biodiversity conservation; plant adaptation; plant phylogeny
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Mediterranean area is an important center of plant diversity, representing the third plant richest hotspot in the world, housing approximately 30,000 taxa, over 50% of which are endemic. A combination of factors, including a complex history of biogeographical processes and climate change, a large environmental heterogeneity, and a long-lasting human influence, made the Mediterranean a key refuge area for plants but also a crossroads for three major landmasses (Europe, Asia, and Africa) of floral exchange and active plant diversification. The large number of islands and archipelagos and the associated isolation phenomena further contributed to the high number of rare and locally endemic taxa.

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the primary relevance of the Mediterranean region for global plant biodiversity, many crucial territories still remain poorly known, and several highly polymorphic critical groups need to be better investigated from both a taxonomical and a biogeographical perspective.

This Special Issue of Plants aims to provide new remarkable insights into plant diversity, evolution, distribution patterns and speciation drivers in the Mediterranean area. Research papers on biosystematics, reproductive biology, phylogeny, ecology, evolution, and the biogeography of critical taxonomic groups of Mediterranean flora, as well as on plant spatial distribution and diversification across ecological and biogeographical gradients, will all be considered for this issue.

Prof. Dr. Salvatore Brullo
Prof. Dr. Cristina Salmeri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Vascular plants
  • Mediterranean
  • Plant biodiversity
  • Taxonomy
  • Systematics
  • Morphology
  • Phylogeny
  • Biogeography
  • Evolution
  • Speciation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 9217 KiB  
Article
Allium sphaeronixum (Amaryllidaceae), A New Species from Turkey
by Mine Koçyiğit, Cristina Salmeri, Neriman Özhatay, Erdal Kaya and Salvatore Brullo
Plants 2023, 12(11), 2074; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12112074 - 23 May 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1478
Abstract
In this paper, Allium sphaeronixum, a new species of the sect. Codonoprasum from Turkey, is described and illustrated. The new species is endemic to Central Anatolia, limited to the area of Nevşehir, where it grows on sandy or rocky soil at an [...] Read more.
In this paper, Allium sphaeronixum, a new species of the sect. Codonoprasum from Turkey, is described and illustrated. The new species is endemic to Central Anatolia, limited to the area of Nevşehir, where it grows on sandy or rocky soil at an elevation of 1000–1300 m a.s.l. Its morphology, phenology, karyology, leaf anatomy, seed testa micromorphology, chorology, and conservation status are examined in detail. The taxonomic relationships with the closest allied species, A. staticiforme and A. myrianthum, are also highlighted and discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eco-Geography and Taxonomy of Plants in the Mediterranean Area)
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15 pages, 1346 KiB  
Article
Variability and Nativeness in the Mediterranean Taxa: Divergence and Phylogeography of Genista etnensis (Fabaceae) Inferred from Nuclear and Plastid Data
by Olga De Castro, Gianluigi Bacchetta, Salvatore Brullo, Emanuele Del Guacchio, Emanuela Di Iorio, Carole Piazza and Paolo Caputo
Plants 2022, 11(22), 3171; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11223171 - 19 Nov 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1717
Abstract
Genista etnensis is a remarkable and well-known tree endemic to Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica (Mediterranean Basin). Nevertheless, its morphological variability and its native status throughout its range need to be further investigated. In this study, we aim to clarify some aspects of this [...] Read more.
Genista etnensis is a remarkable and well-known tree endemic to Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica (Mediterranean Basin). Nevertheless, its morphological variability and its native status throughout its range need to be further investigated. In this study, we aim to clarify some aspects of this infraspecific variability by molecular means. Sequences of one nuclear and five plastid markers were analyzed under maximum parsimony by using TCS software. Plastid data were also time-calibrated under a Bayesian Inference framework. Plastid data revealed strong isolation between the populations from the Cyrno-Sardinian biogeographical province, which are also the most diverse and presumably the most archaic, and those from Sicily and Southern Italy (in this latter area, the species is naturalized). The calibration analysis indicates that the last common ancestor between G. etnensis and its sister group G. fasselata dates back to the middle Pliocene or slightly later, when sclerophyllous Mediterranean vegetation spread, whereas G. etnensis itself might have originated in the middle Pleistocene. The current, rather unusual distribution of G. etnensis could be explained by long-range seed dispersal from the western part of the range or by anthropogenic introduction into Sicily, with extinctions of transported haplotypes in the region of origin. Interestingly, the Vesuvius population, introduced from Sicily in recent times and locally naturalized, shows private genotypes, and was richer in both genotypes and haplotypes than the Sicilian ones. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eco-Geography and Taxonomy of Plants in the Mediterranean Area)
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10 pages, 4284 KiB  
Article
Sideritis elica, a New Species of Lamiaceae from Bulgaria, Revealed by Morphology and Molecular Phylogeny
by Ina Aneva, Petar Zhelev and Georgi Bonchev
Plants 2022, 11(21), 2900; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11212900 - 28 Oct 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1826
Abstract
Sideritis elica, from the Rhodope Mountains, is described as a species new to science. Results of a detailed morphological analysis were combined with the data of molecular analyses using DNA barcoding as an efficient tool for the genetic, taxonomic identification of plants. The [...] Read more.
Sideritis elica, from the Rhodope Mountains, is described as a species new to science. Results of a detailed morphological analysis were combined with the data of molecular analyses using DNA barcoding as an efficient tool for the genetic, taxonomic identification of plants. The combination of morphological features distinguishes the new species well: Its first three uppermost leaf pairs are significantly shorter and wider, the branchiness of the stems is much more frequent, the whole plant is much more lanate, and it looks almost white, as opposed to the other closed species of section Empedoclia, which look grayish green. The molecular analysis, based on the rbcL and trnH-psbA regions, supports the morphological data about the divergence of Sideritis scardica and Sideritis elica. The studied populations of the two taxa were found to be genetically distant (up to 6.8% polymorphism for trnH-psbA) with distinct population-specific nucleotide patterns, while no polymorphism in the DNA barcodes was detected within the Sideritis elica population. The results confirm the existence of a new species called Sideritis elica, which occurs in the nature reserve Chervenata Stena, located in the northern part of the Central Rhodope Mountains. There were only 12 individuals found in the locality, which underlines the necessity of conservation measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eco-Geography and Taxonomy of Plants in the Mediterranean Area)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Phenological response to drought and competition in Mediterranean annual species from macro- and microclimatic aridity gradients
Authors: Johannes Metz
Affiliation: Universität Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany
Abstract: Phenology (days to first flower; plant size at first flower) is a key trait for adaptation to increasing aridity and thus for climate change. Here, we studied phenology in five common Mediterranean annual species sampled in 15 sites along a large-scale aridity gradient in Israel (90-926mm mean annual rainfall) and from microclimatically contrasting South-exposed (more arid) versus North-exposed (more mesic) hill slopes. For two species, we further test the effect of low irrigation and competition on phenology. Using a strong experimental design, we provide to our knowledge the most comprehensive test whether plants from South-exposed hillslopes are drier-adapted ecotypes than their conspecifics from corresponding (more mesic) North-exposed slopes; and whether plastic phenological responses to competition and drought are adaptive.

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