Giovanni Astuti

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Technician at University of Pisa

The Botanic Garden and Museum of the University of Pisa was established in 1543 by Luca Ghini with the primary aim of conducting academic teaching and research on plants with medicinal properties. Since then, a plethora of Praefecti developed several lines of research, until the current days in which scientific research plays a central role in the...

Defining species boundaries within plant groups distributed along wide elevational and geographic gradients may lead to unstable taxonomic delimitations using only morphological data. Within the taxonomically challenging genus Dianthus, through an integrative approach we tested the taxonomic value of D. brachycalyx, a putative species endemic to mo...

In this contribution, new chromosome data obtained on material collected in Italy are presented. It includes the first count for Dianthus carthusianorum subsp. tenorei, Helosciadium nodiflorum, Hieracium hypochoeroides subsp. cilentanum, H. lesimanum, H. scopolioides, H. terraccianoi. In addition, first Italian counts for Crupina vulgaris, Damasoni...

European wild carnations (Dianthus) are represented by a high number of taxa organized in unresolved taxonomies. Particularly, taxa belonging to the Dianthus virgineus L. complex in the Central Mediterranean have been delimited mainly with qualitative morphological data and still await quantitative investigations, which are vital to understand boun...

Simple Summary Natural selection, genetic drift, and migration mainly drive evolution within species. By studying intraspecific variation at different elevations within the wild carnation Dianthus virgineus, we found a low genetic isolation paralleled by a high phenotypic differentiation among populations. In this species, genetic variation is rela...

The herbarium digitization process is an essential first step in transforming the vast amount of data associated with a physical specimen into flexible digital data formats. In this framework, the Herbarium of the University of Pisa (international code PI), at the end of 2018 started a process of digitization focusing on one of its most relevant co...

Scientific research is the main driver to push forward and disseminate botanical knowledge. Despite many institutions have this fundamental aim as core activity, many of them do not have a complete set of facilities, expertise, staff and resources to cover all the steps involving the study, management, conservation and popularization of plant diver...

New localities and/or confirmations concerning 85 specific and subspecific plant taxa of Tuscan vascular flora, belonging to 68 genera and 36 families are presented: Amaranthus (Amaranthaceae); Allium (Amaryllidaceae); Bifora, Bupleurum (Apiaceae); Arisarum (Araceae); Maianthemum, Ruscus (Asparagaceae); Bidens, Crepis, Galinsoga, Senecio, Taraxacum...

The genus Santolina (Asteraceae, Anthemideae) includes 26 species of aromatic evergreen shrubs endemic to the western Mediterranean Basin. Santolina is widely used as ornamental plant, in xerigardening, and in ethnobotany. The Santolina chamaecyparissus complex, including about half of the known species diversity, has been properly investigated on...

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of vascular flora alien to Italy are presented. It includes new records, confirmations, and status changes for Italy or for Italian administrative regions. Nomenclatural and distribution updates, published elsewhere, and corrections are provided as Suppl. material 1

A traditional karyomorphological approach was carried out in order to investigate the cytotaxonomic relationships among the species of the Santolina chamaecyparissus complex. All the 14 species included in this species complex were analysed for a total of 39 populations. Metaphase plates were obtained by squashing root tips stained with Feulgen tec...

Hybridization and introgression have a significant impact on the taxonomically controversial genus Pulmonaria. Within this genus, the P. hirta complex shows puzzling systematic relationships among P. hirta s.str. (2n = [22, 26]28), P. apennina (2n = 22[26]), and P. vallarsae (2n = 22), showing range overlaps and mixed phenotypes in Southern Europe....

The Santolina chamaecyparissus complex includes 13 species of dwarf aromatic evergreen shrubs from the western Mediterranean Basin. Five native species occurring in Italy are currently accepted. Four of them are endemic to relatively restricted areas in the peninsula, whereas S. corsica Jord. & Fourr. is endemic to Corsica and Sardinia. The taxonom...

Botanic Gardens and Herbaria are traditionally recognised as knowledge repositories about the world of plants. The study, management, and conservation of specimens has represented a cornerstone for the advance of botanical disciplines along centuries. In recent decades the spread of informatic tools has opened new opportunities to further enhance t...

Modern plant taxonomy and systematics need integrated approaches that rely on the use of classification models for testing alternative taxonomic hypotheses. In this poster we present the behavior of different machine learning models on a morphometric dataset.

Simple Summary Armeria arenaria is a highly variable Western European species, for which three subspecies are recorded in Italy. Armeria arenaria subsp. arenaria has been reported from Northern Italy, while A. arenaria subsp. marginata and A. arenaria subsp. apennina are considered endemic to the Apennines. The taxonomic value of these two latter t...

A new locality of Sternbergia colchiciflora from Latium (Capranica Prenestina, Monte Cerella) is reported.

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of native vascular flora in Italy are presented. It includes new records, confirmations, and exclusions to the Italian administrative regions. Nomenclatural and distribution updates, published elsewhere, and corrigenda are provided as Suppl. material 1.

Simple Summary Systematics is the branch of biology that studies the relationships among organisms and their evolution, while taxonomy is the science of classification. In this work, a systematic and taxonomic investigation about three plant species of Santolina, commonly known as lavender-cotton, is presented. Two of these species occur exclusivel...

In this contribution, new chromosome data obtained on material collected in Italy are presented. It includes the first counts for Hieracium glanduliferum s.str. and H. tenuiflorum, counts for two Armeria species endemic to Italy, and for Onopordum illyricum subsp. illyricum. We also present here the first chromosome count of Allium permixtum for It...

The nomenclature of 14 taxa from Central and Southern Europe within the Dianthus virgineus group is discussed. Dianthus aggericola Jord., D. collivagus Jord., D. consimilis Jord., D. orophilus Jord., D. saxicola Jord., D. juratensis Jord. are here lectotypified by specimens from the Jordan herbarium in LY, while D. godronianus Jord. by a specimen i...

Vengono presentate nuove località e/o conferme relative a 61 taxa specifici e sottospecifici di piante vascolari della flora vascolare toscana, appartenenti a 56 generi e 25 famiglie: Delosperma (Aizoaceae), Ridolfia (Apiaceae), Dracunculus (Araceae), Gamochaeta, Hieracium, Matricaria, Rhagadiolus, Senecio, Tolpis (Asteraceae), Atriplex (Amaranthac...

In this contribution, we synthesize the main findings regarding Armeria arenaria complex in Italy through a taxonomic integrated approach.

A lectotype is designated for the name Dianthus virgineus. The relationships between D. virgineus, D. caryophyllus var. caryophyllus, and D. caryophyllus var. inodorus are analyzed. Dianthus virgineus is the oldest available name that applies to a species complex which is often referred to as D. sylvestris or a broad circumscription of the cultivat...

In this contribution, new chromosome data obtained on material collected in Italy are presented. It includes counts for Centaurea aegusae , Hieracium racemosum subsp. lucanum, H. australe subsp. australe, Lysimachia arvensis subsp. arvensis, Micromeria graeca subsp. graeca, and M. graeca subsp. consentina.

A nomenclatural revision of the Santolina chamaecyparissus species complex is presented. A detailed survey of original material for all names applied to members of the complex was performed, and twenty-eight names are newly typified. The current usage of the names S. villosa and S. ericoides, relating to some Spanish and French populations, is disc...

The narrow central Italian endemic and threatened Webb’s hyacinth (Bellevalia webbiana), a perennial herb, is a clear example of a species that has disappeared from several localities due to the development of human settlements. We characterized population genetics of this species to infer possible threats to its viability. We used a dominant DNA f...

In this contribution, new chromosome data regarding two taxonomically critical genera of the Italian flora, namely Plantago and Sesleria, are presented. All the specimens analysed in this paper were collected in the Italian territory and include three chromosome counts for Plantago (P. albicans, P. crassifolia, and P. subulata) and two counts for S...

Italy is located in the heart of the Mediterranean Basin, a region considered one of the most threatened global biodiversity hotspots. Its environmental and climatic heterogeneity allowed the differentiation of a large number of plant species (more than 8.200 taxa), that however are subjected to an increased number of threats due to changes in soci...

In this contribution, new chromosome data obtained on material collected in Italy are presented. It includes counts from six populations of three taxa within the genus Pulmonaria , two of which are endemic to Italy (P. vallarsae subsp. apennina and P. vallarsae subsp. vallarsae); the other is the widespread European P. officinalis . In addition, tw...

The main features to distinguish the seven native Utricularia species occurring in central Europe are found in flower shape, but being rarely flowering identification is often doubtful and uncertain. A recent morphometric work highlighted that there are no univocal reliable extra-floral morphological features allowing a safe identification at speci...

In the tetraploid Tulipa sylvestris we found larger and heavier seeds that germinated around 28 days earlier than those of the diploid ancestor Tulipa pumila . The faster germination of the tetraploid species is linked to the faster growth of embryos, which reached their final length much earlier than the embryos of the diploid species. In conclusi...

We found functionally male individuals in an otherwise hermaphroditic population of Tulipa pumila (Liliaceae) located in Tuscany (central Italy). We investigated the sex ratio of this population, followed by morphometric analyses on scape, leaf, and flower, and tests on pollen germinability and seed number and mass, in order to infer which sexual s...

Vengono presentate nuove località e/o conferme relative 75 taxa specifici e sottospecifici di piante vascolari della flora vascolare toscana, appartenenti a 67 generi e 41 famiglie: Delosperma (Aizoaceae), Dysphania (Amaranthaceae), Leucojum, Nothoscordum (Amaryllidaceae), Bupleurum, Coriandrum (Apiaceae), Araujia (Apocynaceae), Lemna (Araceae), Hy...

Populations of Pulmonaria on Apennine highlands in the province of Bologna were investigated. Except for a few isolated sites with P. officinalis, most populations are referable to P. apennina on the basis of leaf shape, indumentum and chromosome number (2n = 22). Pulmonaria apennina occurs in two morphs: i) a green morph with few or no leaf spots,...

In this contribution, new chromosome data obtained on material collected in Italy are presented. It includes three chromosome counts from two taxa endemic to Southern Italy ( Centaurea subtilis and Onobrychis alba subsp. echinata) and one species ( Poa ligulata ) occurring in Italy with only one recently discovered population.

Measuring and modelling the response (sensitivity) of wild plants to current and future climate is crucial to predict future biodiversity and ecological assets. Our research group is using a range of experimental approaches to address this goal. To predict range shifts in plant species under climate change scenarios, we use species distribution mod...

Oral presentation within the symposium "Plant Conservation"

In order to improve the floristic knowledge of the Italian territory, we report the inventory of the taxa collected during the annual field trip of the working group for Floristics, Systematics and Evolution of the Italian Botanical Society held in 2015 in eastern Irpinia and Vulture-Melfese area (South Italy). The investigated territories are loca...

The census of the loci classici of 1,227 native, non-endemic vascular plants described from Italy is here presented and described. The effective place of publication of accepted names, basionyms and homotypic synonyms were identified and critically verified. The geographic information on the loci classici was excerpted from the protologues, as well...

In this contribution, new chromosome data obtained on material collected in Italy are presented. It includes a total of 105 chromosome counts for three populations of Pulmonaria vallarsae A.Kern. subsp. apennina (Cristof. & Puppi) Cecchi & Selvi and for three populations of P. hirta L.

The hybrid Anemonoides nemorosa × A.ranunculoides is recorded for the first time in Italy at the southern periphery of Bologna (N Italy, Emilia-Romagna). Its status is supported by both morphological features and chromosome number (2n = 31). For this taxon, a new nomenclatural combination is proposed.

Insufficient attention has been devoted to the evaluation of inter-population and inter-individual variability of CSR (competitive, C; stress tolerant, S; and ruderal, R) strategy. Hence, we selected Bellevalia webbiana as a case study for answering the following questions: (1) is there a significant intraspecific variability in leaf traits determi...

New localities and/or confirmations concerning 57 specific and subspecific plant taxa of Tuscan vascular flora, belonging to 42 genera and 25 families are presented: Chenopodium, Polycnemum, Salsola (Amaranthaceae), Torilis (Apiaceae), Hieracium, Tragopogon (Asteraceae), Mahonia (Berberidaceae), Lepidium (Brassicaceae), Campanula (Campanulaceae), H...

In central Europe, seven native species of Utricularia occur, mainly distinguished by flower features. They can be subdivided in three aggregates according to shoot morphology: 1) U. intermedia aggr., also comprising U. ochroleuca and U. stygia, 2) U. vulgaris aggr., also comprising U. australis and 3) U. minor aggr., also comprising U. bremii . We...

In this contribution, new chromosome data obtained on material collected in Italy are presented. It includes three chromosome counts for Bupleurum baldense Turra, Colchicum lusitanum Brot., and Euphorbia gasparrinii Boiss. subsp. gasparrinii.

The Habitats Directive requires Member States to monitor the conservation status of habitats and species of Community interest. For plant species, monitoring can be carried out at population level and the estimation of the population size is one of the key objectives. Generally, the measuring unit, required as a priority by the European Commission,...

Environmental changes can affect the distribution and conservation of plant populations, therefore the study of the ability to modulate reproductive and vegetative traits is of large interest. Cistus laurifolius is a shrub typically occurring in Mediterranean open vegetation, often under different degrees of habitat light intensity. In the present...

In this contribution new chromosome data obtained on material collected in Italy are presented. It includes 7 chromosome counts for Centaurea (Asteraceae).

In the framework of a systematic revision of Central European Utricularia L. (Astuti & Peruzzi 2018), we came across a first-step typification (Meister 1900) concerning the name Utricularia bremii Heer in Koelliker (1839: 142), and a name yet untypified, i.e. U. intermedia Dreves & Hayne (1798: 104). A second-step typification and a lectotypificati...

Between 1789 and 1825, Gaetano Savi described eleven Trifolium names, ten of which are not yet typified. In order to fix the application of these names, nomenclatural types are designated here and previous typifications are discussed. For eight names (T. bocconei, T. elegans, T. michelianum, T. obscurum, T. praetutianum, T. rigidum, T. sebastiani,...

An updated inventory of the native vascular flora of Italy, providing details on the occurrence at regional level, is presented. The checklist includes 8195 taxa (6417 species and 1778 subspecies), distributed in 1092 genera and 152 families; 23 taxa are lycophytes, 108 ferns and fern allies, 30 gymnosperms and 8034 angiosperms. The taxa currently...

To pursue a proper conservation of narrow endemic species, the knowledge of basic reproductive strategies is crucial to plan adequate conservation activities. One of the most evolutionarily relevant and threatened Italian endemic is the Webb’s hyacinth (Bellevalia webbiana Parl.). As the reproductive behaviour of this species and its connection wit...

New localities and/or confirmations concerning 98 specific and subspecific plant taxa of Tuscan vascular flora, belonging to 81 genera and 42 families are presented: Alisma, Baldellia (Alismataceae), Chenopodium (Amaranthaceae), Sternbergia (Amaryllidaceae), Bupleurum (Apiaceae), Vinca (Apocynaceae), Muscari, Polygonatum (Asparagaceae), Carlina, Ce...

Nomenclature investigations on Poaceae species described by Gaetano Savi and survey of possible original material in PI Herbarium

Isolated populations are usually subject to both low fitness and reduced genetic diversity, which may negatively affect their survival and adaptive potential. Hence, these issues cannot be neglected, when planning conservation actions for isolated populations. The Italian population of Cistus laurifolius subsp. laurifolius is extremely isolated. Fu...

In the south-central Mediterranean four tetraploid species of Bellevalia occur: B. dolichophylla, B. galitensis, B. mauritanica, and B. pelagica. Another group of plants, morphologically similar to B. dolichophylla, has been recently recovered in Zembra Island (Tunisia). A phylogenetic reconstruction involving all these tetraploid taxa was performe...

Invasion by alien species is a growing concern for ecosystem stability and native biodiversity (1). Here, we examined the distribution in Tuscany of 48 invasive alien plants at regional level and of 7 invasive alien plants at European scale (2) through phylogenetic measures of biodiversity, assessed their association with environmental predictors a...

Preliminary observations conducted in 2010 revealed that Tuscan population of the only two tulips native to Italy, i.e. Tulipa sylvestris L. and the systematically closely related T. pumila Moench (= T. australis Link), hosted several individuals with male flowers. This can be considered as a case of morphological androdioecy (1, 2), which in the g...

Relationships between age, time of emergence, and leaf traits of individuals were investigated in a population of Erythronium dens-canis L. in a hilly woodland area named Farneto-C, near Bologna, Italy. In 2015, 591 individuals were counted, 19 of which were flowering (FLO), 442 were mature non-flowering (MNF) and 130 were juveniles (JUV). FLO emer...

Relationships between age, time of emergence, and leaf traits of individuals were investigated in a population of Erythroniumdens-canis L. in a hilly woodland area named Farneto-C , near Bologna, Italy. In 2015, 591 individuals were counted, 19 of which were flowering (FLO), 442 were mature non-flowering (MNF) and 130 were juveniles (JUV). FLO emer...

In this contribution, the conservation status assessment of four vascular plants are presented according to IUCN categories and criteria. It includes the assessment at global level of Crepis lacera Ten subsp. titani (Pamp.) Roma-Marzio, G.Astuti & Peruzzi and Anthyllis hermanniae L. subsp. sicula Brullo & Giusso and the regional assessment of Commi...

Chromosomes are helpful tools for systematic purposes, but their use has not always been rigorous. In this contribution, we review and discuss the use of karyomorphological data from the beginning of cytotaxonomy to present day. We highlight the use of incorrect karyomorphological parameters and the erroneous merging of different parameters in some...

New localities and/or confirmations concerning 67 specific and subspecific plant taxa of Tuscan vascular flora, belonging to 59 genera and 37 families are presented: Alisma (Alismataceae), Amaranthus (Amaranthaceae), Leucojum, Sternbergia, Tristagma (Amaryllidaceae), Aloe (Asphodelaceae), Erigeron, Galinsoga, Hieracium, Rhagadiolus, Silybum, Soliva...

The Italian vascular flora is one of the richest in the European Union and the Italian peninsula is located at the centre of the Mediterranean Basin, one of the 25 world biodiversity hotspots with an exceptional loss of habitats and species (1). Preliminary to any conservation initiative concerning plant diversity, a prioritization of the most enda...

The present contribution is part of an ongoing work promoted by the Italian Botanical Society aimed to recognize and typify all the taxa described from Italy and their loci classici, in order to increase their systematic knowledge and promote further studies (Domina et al. 2012, Peruzzi et al. 2015). One of these taxa is Fimbristylis cioniana Savi...

In this contribution new chromosome data obtained from material collected in Italy are presented. It includes four chromosome counts for the following genera: Bellevalia (Asparagaceae), Genista (Fabaceae), Linaria (Plantaginaceae), and Teucrium (Lamiaceae).

No sufficient attention was devoted so far to the evaluation of inter-population and inter-individual variability of tertiary CSR strategy (1, 2). As a case study, we selected five populations covering the whole range of the Webb’s hyacinth (Bellevalia webbiana), a narrow Italian endemic (3). In order to maximize the potential variation in function...

In this contribution, the conservation status assessment of four vascular plants are presented according to IUCN categories and criteria. It includes the assessment at global level of Crepis lacera Ten subsp. titani (Pamp.) Roma-Marzio, G.Astuti & Peruzzi and Anthyllis hermanniae L. subsp. sicula Brullo & Giusso and the regional assessment of Commi...

In this contribution new data concerning the Italian distribution of native vascular flora are presented. It includes new records, exclusions, and confirmations to the Italian administrative regions for taxa in the genera Arctostaphylos, Artemisia, Buglossoides, Convolvulus, Crocus, Damasonium, Epipogium, Ficaria, Filago, Genista, Heptaptera, Herac...

Gaetano Savi (1769–1844) worked at the University of Pisa and was a prominent figure among Italian botanists of the XIX century. He published about 75 scientific papers, primarily devoted to floristic researches and taxonomical investigations. During his career, he described 89 taxa of vascular plants (6 genera and 83 species). In the frame of a ty...

In this contribution new chromosome numbers for Italian endemic taxa are presented. It includes 13 chromosome counts for Ornithogalum (Asparagaceae), Anthemis, Carduus, Centaurea, Cirsium, Hieracium, Taraxacum (Asteraceae), Asyneuma (Campanulaceae), Knautia (Caprifoliaceae), Gypsophila (Caryophyllaceae), Linum (Linaceae), Helleborus (Ranunculaceae)...