NOTES ON THE STATUS AND THE CURRENT SPREAD OF VIBURNUM TINUS L. (Viburnaceae) IN SICILY (ITALY)

The authors carried out a multi-disciplinary research in order to clarify the native status of Vibur
num
tinus in Sicily and update the knowledge about its current regional distribution. With this pur
pose,
a large amount of scientific papers on forestry, botany and palaeo- and archaeobotany was con
sulted;
more useful data issued from papers focused on local historical gardens, from archives and
from herbarium specimens. The available data suggest that most of the extant nuclei may issue from
the recent colonization of plants introduced just few centuries ago. Although the status of the stands
found in some warm and humid sites in the surroundings of the city of Palermo and on the Sicani
Mountain Range remains uncertain, with no doubt the majority of the other populations, including
the seven new ones mentioned for the first time in this paper, issue from the recent spread of this
species in several coastal and inland areas, a process which has been facilitated by its efficient seed
dispersal strategy and its massive use as an ornamental plant in the green areas of the island.