Taxonomic diversity
The critical analysis of bibliographic information, herbarium specimens, and observation and field collections carried out in this study, made it possible to update the checklist of the alien vascular flora to Calabria (see Annex 1).
Overall, the alien flora of this region includes 381 taxa (among species, subspecies and hybrids), belonging to 243 genera and 84 families (Table 1). They belong mainly to angiosperms eudicots (67 families, 282 taxa), followed by Monocots (19 families, 88 taxa), gymnosperms (2 families, 9 taxa), ferns and allies (2 families, 2 taxa). Taking into account the regional vascular flora (Bartolucci et al. 2018, 2021) alien taxa represent 12% of the Calabrian flora.
The distribution of alien taxa among the families is strongly unbalanced (Fig. 2). Most taxa are distributed in a few families, the largest of which are Asteraceae (39 taxa), Poaceae (38), Fabaceae (28), Solanaceae (23), while many families contain 1 or 2 taxa (Fig. 2).
The genera with the highest number of alien taxa are Amaranthus (9 taxa), Prunus (8), Euphorbia, Oxalis (7), Vitis, Bidens, Cyperus, Solanum (5). Most genera include only one species. The richest genera include weed species or species of agronomic interest.
Table 1
Taxonomic diversity of Calabrian flora (° this study, °° Bartolucci et al. 2018, 2021)
Category
|
N. alien taxa of Calabria°
|
N. native taxa of Italy°°
|
Species
|
381
|
2786
|
Genus
|
243
|
813
|
Family
|
84
|
149
|
New Aliens to Calabrian flora
The field research carried out along this study has identified several new alien vascular taxa for the flora of Calabria.
A complete list of these taxa is given in Annex 2 with complete information on collection locations and growth environment. Four taxa are new to the European flora (Camptosema rubicundum, Ipomoea hederacea, Kalanchoë laxiflora, Musa ×paradisiaca), 2 to the Italian peninsula (Pelargonium graveolens, Schinus terebinthifolia) and 14 to the Calabrian flora (Aeonium arboreum, Asparagus asparagoides, Aspidistra elatior, Bidens sulphurea, Catalpa bignonioides, Citrus ×aurantium, Crassula ovata, Cucurbita ficifolia, Dimorphotheca ecklonis, Graptopetalum paraguayense subsp. paraguayense, Nicotiana tabacum, Phytolacca dioica, Portulaca umbraticola, Talinum paniculatum, Tecomaria capensis).
Species status
In relation to the invasive status (Fig. 3), the largest group is the "casual" ones with over 58% of the flora (220 taxa), followed by the "naturalized" (126 taxa) 33%. Invasive alien species (IAS) are 35 and represent about 9% of the Calabrian alien vascular flora (4 of these are included in the Union list: Acacia saligna, Cenchrus setaceus, Ailanthus altissima, Hydrocotyle ranunculoides, the latter is a “historical report”, recently not found for the region).
Regarding the residence status, 75% of the Calabrian alien taxa are neophytes (286), while the 20% are archaeophytes (76) and the 5% are regional alien (19). Comparing "residence status" and "invasive status", neophytes are in proportion better represented among the invasive aliens, where they make up almost all taxa (33 out of 35 taxa).
Life forms
The life forms spectrum (Fig. 4) highlights that Therophytes (30%, 116 taxa) and Phanerophytes (29%, 111 taxa) are dominant life forms among the Calabrian alien flora, followed by Hemicryptophytes (14%, 54 taxa), Geophytes (13%, 50), while other life forms such as Chamaephytes (8%, 29 taxa), Nanophanerophytes (4%, 17 taxa) and Hydrophytes (1%, 4 taxa) are less representative.
The analysis of statistical inference carried out with the chi-square test shows for the group of Phanerophytes/Nanophanerophytes (P/NP) a level of significance lower than 0.05 (**) and therefore on average significant between the casual and the naturalized/invasive. In the case of Therophytes (T), the significance level is low as it is less than 0.1(*). For the other life form categories, the differences are not significant (Fig. 5).
Comparison with the life forms spectrum of the native Calabrian flora (Pignatti 1994) shows that while the Therophytes have a similar percentage in native and alien species, the Phanerophytes/Nanophanerophytes have a much higher percentage among the aliens (33.6%) than among the natives (9.6%) (Fig. 6). The higher frequency of Phanerophytes/Nanophanerophytes results from the introduction and widespread use of trees and shrubs for ornamental purposes as Acer negundo, Amorpha fruticosa, Austrocylindropuntia subulata, Schinus molle, Sesbania punicea, but also forestry as Acacia saligna, Robinia pseudacacia, Populus ×canadensis, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, E. occidentalis or agricultural crops as Ricinus communis, Vitis rupestris, Opuntia ficus-indica.
The chi-square test confirms that the difference between alien and native Phanerophytes/Nanophanerophytes (P/NP) has a high significance level < 0.001 (***). Regarding the Hemicryptophytes (H), the significance level is low as it is below 0.1 (*). There are no significant differences for the other categories of life forms (Fig. 6).
Habitat
In Calabria, alien taxa grow mostly on artificial surfaces (194 taxa, 51%), especially in urban and suburban territory. Well represented is also the group of taxa growing on agricultural surfaces (20%) such as crops and orchards. As many as 109 taxa (28.6%) occur in natural and semi-natural habitats especially in riparian 7%, wetlands (6%), shrubs (5%) (Fig. 7). This data is quite alarming because shows that about to a third of the alien taxa in Calabria grow in natural environments which are in themselves vulnerable due to the anthropic pressure linked to the urbanization of the coastal strip, which is very accentuated in some places.
Geographical origin
Most of the alien taxa (156) recorded are native from Americas with 41% (95 from South America: 25%; 61 from North America: 16%). The second most important source is Asia, having 20% of alien taxa, while Africa follows with 15%. To a lesser extent, they are from Mediterranean Region (9%), Europe (5%) and Eurasia (4%). Finally, 2% are currently spread over a large distribution area (cosmopolitan), 2% from Australia, and other 2% are of uncertain origin (Fig. 8).
Introduction pathways
Most alien species are introduced intentionally as ornamental plants (55%), others are introduced as economically useful plants for agricultural (20%) or forestry (3%) purposes, or unintentional (22%) often as contaminated of seeds or soils.