Revision and new proposals regarding Salvia officinalis communities after new findings from the Abruzzo region, Central Adriatic Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACTSalvia officinalis communities are not common in Italy. Until recently, the studies carried out in Italy have generally not always been thorough regarding the physiognomic type of these communities and have not clearly distinguished between the real garrigues and the pasture communities (with more or less abundant Chamaephytes). A finer approach, allowing a correct interpretation of micro-mosaic patchiness, is necessary when the “elementary area” is chosen to be analyzed, in order to permit this kind of distinction. In the Abruzzo region, on the Central Adriatic side of Italy, this species is quite rare and is exclusively represented by the angustifolia variety. Actually, only few S. officinalis communities were known and studied in the Abruzzo region. New localities were found for this species and related communities. A newly uploaded dataset from the region is documented here, combining literature review data and new relevés, and is analyzed by multivariate methods. Results show that the Salvia officinalis garrigues of the Abruzzo region are not all attributable to the same plant association, as the coenological features of these communities are quite variable, depending mainly on geomorphological and climate features. Only half of the literature relevés previously attributed to the Saturejo montanae-Salvietum angustifoliae association are clearly ascribable to it, while the other half concerns anomalous aspects, poor in diagnostic species. A new set of diagnostic and differential species is proposed for that association; and two new variants have been proposed. We also propose a new association: Euphorbio spinosae-Salvietum angustifoliae, with two sub-associations, both found in newly studied localities. Further similar thorough reviews are desirable for other associations described in South-Eastern Europe, taking into account a fine separation between chamaephyte dominated communities and those that are mainly hemicryptophytic.