Spontaneously spreading introduced species in the Mt. Etna Nuova Gussonea botanic garden during the thirty years of activity (1979-2009)

Abstract

On the Etnean botanic garden, since its foundation, many plants were yearly introduced from various sites of Mt. Etna. Many of them spontaneously spread after introduction. On this work it is pointed out that, during the period 2001-2008, over 400 plants spontaneously spread. They belong to 152 species, whose 51 (33,55%) became spontaneous since the previous period (1979-2000). During the thirty years of activity 101 of the introduced species spontaneously spread in the garden. This is significant considering that such species are of particular importance for the biodiversity increase in the garden.