Tackling the Sicilian woody vegetation as a case-study, this work aims to verify the correspondence between Rivas-Martínez's bioclimatic units and the main vegetation series in the Mediterranean region. Following this approach, one macrobioclimate and 25 bioclimatic type belts can be recognized in Sicily. By means of a geostatistical analysis based on WorldClim data sets, cartographic models of the distribution range of each single bioclimatic unit were obtained and combined with vegetation data, in order to develop a new regional spatial framework, integrating climatic and vegetation data. Fidelity of each vegetation unit to a given climatic range was then evaluated as percent distribution of the occupied surface within a given bioclimatic unit, while the predictive power of the WorldClim data sets was tested by using half of the spatial data of the processed vegetation units as independent variables. Our results suggest that: (1) any kind of numerical threshold used to define bioclimatic units is not effective a priori, but only after it has been adjusted to the territory and to the spatial scale used to set the model; (2) bioclimatic indices being an empirical tool, the model can be trained and eventually adjusted when applied to different territories; (3) fidelity of vegetation units to a given bioclimatic unit is highly variable; (4) the mechanistic pitfall that climatophilous vegetation has to be necessarily linked to a single bioclimatic unit should be avoided.

Two new putative hybrid species of Poa, P. navashinii Nosov and P. levitskyi Nosov are described and illustrated. They were found in the southeastern Altai Mountains (southern Siberia, Russia), on a riverbank and in dry mountain steppe. Both of them resemble the species of sect. Stenopoa (a xerophytic group) but have some traits that suggest hybridization with species of other sections, presumably sect. Poa or Malacanthae. Intersectional reticulation with formation of new taxa occurs in mountain regions though species of the sect. Poa s. stricto and sect. Stenopoa cross rather rarely. Our data add support to a significant role of hybridization in the phylogeny of Poa and the Poeae tribe in general.

A new species, Petrocodon confertiflorus H.Q. Li & Y.Q. Wang (Gesneriaceae) from Guangdong Province in south China, is described and illustrated. It is most similar to P. dealbatus, but is distinct from its congeners by its bigger ovate-oblanceolate leaf blade with 6–12 pairs of lateral nerves, by the number of cymes (3–10) with 2–3 branches bearing densely placed flowers, by the swollen, urceolate corolla with a constricted orifice, by the stamens adnate to the corolla and with the anthers free, as well as by the leaf epidermal characters.

Plantago schrenkii (dwarf plantain) from the Russian Arctic is frequently segregated at species level from P. maritima (sea plantain). Using simultaneous morphometric and molecular analyses, I came to the conclusion that P. schrenkii is just an ecological form of sea plantain and should not be recognized at any taxonomical level.

A new species, Euphorbia khorasanica Saeidi & Ghayormand (Euphorbiaceae), is described and illustrated from Khorasan Province, NE Iran. It belongs to sect. Pithyusa and is morphologically closely related to E. kopetdaghi, E. microsciadia and E. sogdiana, but differs from them by having very narrow cauline leaves and shorter ray leaves.

Pterichis macbridei Kolan. and P. cajamarcae Kolan. (Orchidaceae) are described and illustrated as new species based on Peruvian material. Their taxonomic affinities are discussed and information on their habitat ecology is provided. Pterichis diuris is reported for the first time from Peru and the name is lectotypified. An updated identification key to Peruvian species of Pterichis is presented.

Twenty-six names of taxa of Hieracium sections Hieracium, Bifida and Vulgata (Asteraceae) described by the Finnish author J.P. Norrlin based on material from central Sweden and adjacent Norway and originally published in 1888 are lectotypified, and their applications are discussed. The replacement name H. cognatum T. Tyler & Sennikov is proposed as a substitute for the illegitimate H. propinquum (Norrl. ex Hamb.) Johanss., non Sudre.

The phloroglucinol composition of 29 species of Dryopteris Adanson belonging to subgenus Dryopteris section Marginatae were investigated on a world-wide basis, and the taxonomy is discussed based on both morphology and chemistry. The ferns of this section show relatively variable phloroglucinol patterns in line with their morphological variability. In good agreement with the other sections of subgenus Dryopteris, the majority of ferns of sect. Marginatae contain considerable amounts of phloroglucinols (crude filicin) and oleo-resin (ether extract) in their rhizomes and stipe-bases. However, D. porosa from China and the Hawai'ian species D. mauiensis were lacking in these phenolics. The African species, D. pentheri, D. lewalleana and D. manniana, are subdivided here into two separate chemical races, however, this does not affect their taxonomic identity, except in the case of D. manniana. Dryopteris wideniana Fraser-Jenk. is described as a new species in the D. manniana aggregate from S and E Africa.

Vascular plant and bryophyte species richness, and bryophyte diaspore bank were studied in 14 Estonian coastal meadows that had been under two different grazing pressures for ca. 10 years. The aim of the study was to compare the effects of grazing intensity on the diversity of these plant groups, and on the bryophyte diaspore bank. The results showed that (1) intensive grazing increased bryophyte diversity, but not that of vascular plants or the diaspore bank; (2) vascular plant diversity was suppressed by litter cover; (3) vascular plant and bryophyte diversities were positively correlated; and (4) the species composition remained unaffected by grazing intensity.

Determining the relative role of various cues on seed germination in Mediterranean plants is important to understanding their response to variable conditions. We studied germination responses of 12 eastern Mediterranean Basin species (Alyssum caricum, A. minus, Carthamus dentatus, Daucus broteri, D. carota, Hypericum aviculariifolium, Muscari comosum, Onopordum caricum, Rumex crispus, Sarcopoterium spinosum, Silene vulgaris, Smyrnium rotundifolium) to different smoke and nitrate concentrations in laboratory. Smoke treatments resulted in significant increase in germination of D. carota, O. caricum, and S. spinosum, but had a negative effect on germination of Hypericum aviculariifolium. Of the 12 studied species, five showed significant improvement in germination after at least one of the nitrate treatments compared with the control. In total, smoke and nitrate treatments significantly increased the germination percentage in six of the 12 studied species. All the species that have smoke- and/or nitrate-stimulated germination were propagule-persisters (P ), able to recruit after fire. The results reveal that both smoke and nitrate improve germination of Mediterranean species. Our results also suggest the presence of species-specific germination response to smoke and nitrate in Mediterranean plants.

The aim of the study was to find indications of climate change by studying changes in frequency and distribution patterns of 18 plant species occurring predominantly on islands. I compared climate-related predictors of islands with species extinctions to islands with colonizations. The study was conducted on 436 islands in the archipelago of SW Finland in the northern Baltic Sea. The data were collected between 1996 and 2012 and, the historical data mainly in the 1930s. I measured predictors, including area, exposure and topographical diversity, in a GIS and used binominal logistic regression to determine which predictors exert an influence on the probability of species occurrence. The number of observations of the selected plants increased by 8.4%, but not by as much as all plant species occurring on the studied islands (10.6%). Species with a generally northern distribution in Finland increased more than thermophilic species. An unambiguous effect of climate warming on the selected plants is not evident. One of the proposed reasons for this is the small-scale topography and the mosaic of different microclimates on the islands that buffer the effect of a large-scale climate warming.

The elementary structural units where changes of plant communities come about are synusiae and studies of successional processes induced by external factors should focus on that scale. Synusia is a structural part of a plant community inhabiting a special microhabitat, with a specific floristic composition and consisting of species that belong to the same stratum and that do not differ fundamentally in either periodicity or way of exploitation of their environment. We studied the responses of the moss synusiae to the cement kiln dust pollution in Myrtillus site-type forests in the vicinity of the Kunda cement plant (North Estonia). The synusiae were clustered into eight societies. The species content of the bryophyte synusiae changed completely along the alkaline pollution gradient. Synusiae of Dicranum polysetum—Pleurozium schreberi, Aulacomnium palustre—Hylocomium splendens and Ptilium crista-castrensis—Hylocomium splendens societies, characteristic of unpolluted forests, were replaced gradually by the synusiae of Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus—Hylocomium splendens, Climacium dendroides—Hylocomium splendens and Rhodobryum roseum—Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus societies as pollution increased. Brachythecium rutabulum—Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus and Fissidens dubius—Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus societies were indicative of forests with heavy alkaline pollution. The composition of epiphytic bryophytes also changed almost completely along the pollution gradient; Fissidens adianthoides, Tortula ruralis and Barbula unguiculata were indicative of the heavily-polluted zone. We conclude that alkaline pollution has a clearly detectable impact on the forests' bryophyte synusiae in terms of both species composition and typological structure.

Leaf mass per area (LMA) is an important variable in a set of coordinated leaf traits to determine plant species' ecological strategies. We hypothesized that LMA was the main predictor of the adaptive strategies of Sesleria juncifolia and S. nitida (Poaceae), growing on Mount Terminillo (Central Apennines) and cultivated ex situ. We broke LMA down into leaf anatomical components (i.e. leaf tissue density and thickness) and then related them to physiological traits. We found that the different habitats of the two species determine a different control of the anatomical components of the LMA variation. These differences are related to photosynthetic capacity, scaling linearly with leaf biomass investment per unit leaf area. On the whole, our study, taking into account the changes in LMA and its anatomical components, provides a trait framework which could be used to analyze adaptive strategies of other species in dry, mountain grasslands.