A SURVEY OF THE WEEDY COMMUNITIES OF SICILY

Abstract

As Sicily has been a central crossroads of human activity for thousands of years, it offers a major perspective on the Mediterranean weedy plant communities. This syntaxonomical survey of the Sicilian weedy vegetation groups together for the first time 30 plant associations, that have been described from the main and neighboring island in the last three decades. The surveyed vegetation is ascribed to the classes Papaveretea rhoeadis and Stellarietea mediae, whose floristic autonomy is here discussed, and to the orders Aperetalia spicae-venti and Papaveretalia rhoeadis for the former, Polygono-Chenopodietalia polispermi, Solano-Polygonetalia convolvuli, Thero- Brometalia and Urtico-Scrophularietalia peregrinae for the latter class. Most of the surveyed associations are linked to hoed cultivations. Major differences are determined by the tillage and watering regimes, on their turn related to the life-cycle of the cultivated plant.