February 2025
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Mediterranean Botany
Despite its proximity to cities with prestigious botanical institutions such as Madrid and Salamanca, and its location between important mountain ranges (Gredos and Malagón mountain ranges), the flora of the province of Ávila had not been studied comprehensively until now. In this article, we present the first checklist of the vascular flora of this province, which is the result of a thorough critical bibliographic review, numerous field trips, and the study of materials preserved in Iberian herbaria, mainly those that house most of the collections made in the province. The taxonomic and nomenclatural treatment considers the results of the latest monographic works and, particularly, the molecular phylogenetic studies carried out during the last few decades. These studies have substantially changed the classification, aligning it with the evolutionary processes that have contributed to the current plant biodiversity. We have accepted 1977 taxa (species and subspecies), with 1810 considered native and 165 introduced. Additionally, we present the floristic spectrum of the province and the state of conservation of its flora. All of this is discussed considering the data provided by the complete checklists available from neighbouring provinces. For each taxon, we highlight its presence or absence in the three ecological regions into which we have divided the province (La Moraña region, Sierra de Gredos, and Sierra de Malagón). Where necessary, we provide observations regarding its distribution, taxonomy, or nomenclature. Notably, we included the genus Exaculum in Schenkia, leading us to propose a new nomenclatural combination.