abstract

A syntaxonomic revision of the holm-oak and cork-oak woods of Sardinia is here presented. The geological and phytoclimatic heterogeneity of the island and the wide ecological amplitude of the holm-oak, result in a large phytocoenotic diversity of the Sardinian holm-oak woods. These are referred to five associations: Pyro amygdaliformis-Quercetum ilicis, Prasio majoris-Quercetum ilicis ass. nova, Galio scabri-Quercetum ilicis, Saniculo europaeae-Quercetum ilicis ass. nova and Aceri monspessulani-Quercetum ilicis. From the phytogeographic point of view, in the subhumid-humid, meso-supramediterranean bioclimatic belts of Sardinia the presence of the association Galio scabri-Quercetum ilicis is found to be remarkable.
As far as the cork-oak woods are concerned, the associations Galio scabri-Quercetum suberis and Violo dehnhardtii-Quercetum suberis ass. nova are here reported.
The Sardinian-Corsican holm-oak and cork-oak woods define the western limit of the European central-Mediterranean alliance Fraxino orni-Quercion ilicis of which in Sardinia there are many characteristic and differential entities. In the Sardinian-Corsican holm-oak woods, however, there are endemic entities (Arum pictum ssp. pictum, Helleborus lividus ssp. corsicus, Digitalis purpurea var. gyspergerae, Quercus ichnusaePaeonia morisii) and other western-centred entities with little or no spread on the Italian peninsula (Galium scabrum, Clematis cirrhosa and Teucrium scorodonia). These entities allow the proposal that within the alliance Fraxino orni-Quercion ilicis can be recognised the new Sardinian-Corsican suballiance Clematido cirrhosae-Quercenion ilicisPrasio majoris-Quercetum ilicis ass. nova), which is endemic to the Sardinian and Corsican sectors of the Italo-Tyrrhenian Province. Consequently, the suballiance Fraxino orni-Quercenion ilicis, which is the typical of the alliance Fraxino orni-Quercion ilicis, has also been proposed.

keywords

Clematido cirrhosae-Quercenion ilicis, cork-oak woods, Corsica, holm-oak woods, phytosociology, Sardinia, synchorology, syntaxonomy