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With the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic
Società Botanica Italiana
109° Congresso
International Plant Science Conference (IPSC)
from Nature to Technological Exploitations
Florence, 2 - 5 September 2014
Posters
109° Congresso S.B.I. (IPSC) - Florence, 2 - 5 September 2014
47
3.1 = CHAMAEROPS HUMILIS L.: ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERISATION
ANTONIO GIOVINO1*, SILVIA SCIBETTA1, GIANMARIA BONARI2, CHIARA MONTAGNANI3, CLAUDIA
TURCATO3, SERGIO SAIA1
1 Consiglio per la ricerca e la sperimentazione in agricoltura (CRA), Unità di ricerca per il recupero e la valorizzazione delle
specie floricole mediterranee (CRA-SFM). S.S. 113 – km 245,500, 90011 Bagheria (PA), Italy; 2 Dipartimento di Scienze
della Vita, Università di Siena, Via Pier Andrea Mattioli 4, 53100 Siena, Italia; 3 DISTAV - Orto Botanico dell'Università di
Genova, corso Dogali 1M, 16136 Genova, Italy.*e-mail: antonio.giovino@entecra.it
The number of natural populations of European fan palm (Chamaerops humilis L.) in Italy is continuously
declining due to anthropic disturbance. Nonetheless, this species is pivotal in the thermo Mediterranean
vegetation belt, where it plays an important ecological role and this induced the Italian government to envisage
for its protection within Special Areas of Conservation, where genetic contaminations from cultivated plants is
reduced.
However, the information about the actual distribution and size of C. humilis natural populations in Italy and the
genetic and morphological variability of this species, are still insufficient.
Aim of the present work was collecting natural populations of European fan palm in Italy, outline its distribution
and, basing on a fine scale study performed in Sicily (1), study its genetic and morphological variability, which are
crucial to structure efficient strategies for its conservation.
The relations between the plants' morphological traits and climatic variables were studied to highlight which are
the most important plant traits in the adaptation to the environment.
Eighteen natural populations in Italy were sampled as follows: 10 from Sicily, 5 from Sardinia, 1 from Lazio
(Parco del Circeo, LT), 2 remnant populations from Tuscany (Parco della Maremma, GR) and Liguria (Parco
Regionale di Portofino, GE). Each population was evaluated based on 10 morphological traits as follows: trunk
height (HT); crown height (HF); trunk diameter (DT); median leaflet length (CLL); width of median leaflet
(WCL); external leaflet length (ELL); hair density (HD; crown diameter to crown height ratio (DF:HT); length of
lamina forking to median leaflet length ratio (LF:CLL); thorn density (TD). In addition, a leaf sample was
collected to evaluate genetic distances basing on specific SSR (2). Finally, seed from each populations were
collected and used to establish an ex-situ collection at Unità di ricerca per il recupero e la valorizzazione delle
specie floricole mediterranee (CRA-SFM, Bagheria, PA) for further studies and conservation purposes.
Preliminary results of plant morphology and its relation with the environment will be presented.
1) A. Giovino , S. Scibetta , S. Saia, C. Guarino (2014). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, in course of publishing
2) S.E. Arranz et al. (2013) Mol Ecol Resour.;13, 546-9