Abstract
The vascular flora of Sardinia has been investigated for more than 250 years, with particular attention to the endemic component due to their phylogeographic and conservation interest. However, continuous changes in the floristic composition through natural processes, anthropogenic drivers or modified taxonomical attributions require constant updating. We checked all available literature, web sources, field, and unpublished data from the authors and acknowledged external experts to compile an updated checklist of vascular plants endemic to Sardinia. Life and chorological forms as well as the conservation status of the updated taxa list were reported. Sardinia hosts 341 taxa (15% of the total native flora) endemic to the Tyrrhenian Islands and other limited continental territories; 195 of these (8% of the total native flora) are exclusive to Sardinia. Asteraceae (50 taxa) and Plumbaginaceae (42 taxa) are the most representative families, while the most frequent life forms are hemicryptophytes (118 taxa) and chamaephytes (106 taxa). The global conservation status, available for 201 taxa, indicates that most endemics are under the ‘Critically Endangered’ (25 taxa), ‘Endangered’ (31 taxa), or ‘Least Concern’ (90 taxa) IUCN categories. This research provides an updated basis for future biosystematics, taxonomic, biogeographical, and ecological studies and in supporting more integrated and efficient policy tools.
Highlights
The concept of ‘endemism’ is apparently simple but is problematic [1]
We present a checklist of vascular plant taxa endemic to Sardinia
Including all taxa shared with other Tyrrhenian Islands and limited portions of palaeogeographically affine continental territories, it represents the first synthesis of the entire Sardinian endemic component
Summary
Previous studies on Mediterranean endemic vascular plants have led to two main approaches in defining this concept. The first approach attempted to give weight to the time of origin of a given endemic taxon [2,3]. On this basis, palaeoendemic (systematically isolated species), schizoendemic (phenotypically and karyologically similar species originated by allopatric speciation from a widespread ancestor), and neoendemic (recently diversified species or still diversifying lineages) taxa were defined. The first attempt to organically describe the endemic vascular flora of Sardinia (consisting in the presentation of 202 taxa on the Bulletin of the Sardinian Society of Natural Sciences by Arrigoni et al [9]) was based on this first approach
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