A Contribution to the knowledge of the orderQuercetalia ilicisBr.-Bl.exMolinier 1934 of Sardinia

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 ilicisass. nova,Galio scabri-Quercetum ilicis,Saniculo europaeae-Quercetum ilicisass. nova andAceri monspessulani-Quercetum ilicis. From the phytogeographic point of view, in the subhumid-humid, meso-supramediterranean bioclimatic belts of Sardinia the presence of the associationGalio scabri-Quercetum ilicisis found to be remarkable. As far as the cork-oak woods are concerned, the associationsGalio scabri-Quercetum suberisandViolo dehnhardtii-Quercetum suberisass. nova are here reported. The Sardinian-Corsican holm-oak and cork-oak woods define the western limit of the European central-Mediterranean allianceFraxino orni-Quercion ilicisof which in Sardinia there are many characteristic and differential entities. In the Sardinian-Corsican holm-oak woods, however, there are endemic entities (Arum pictumssp.pictum,Helleborus lividusssp.corsicus,Digitalis purpureavar.gyspergerae,Quercus ichnusaeandPaeonia morisii) and other western-centred entities with little or no spread on the Italian peninsula (Galium scabrum,Clematis cirrhosaandTeucrium scorodonia). These entities allow the proposal that within the allianceFraxino orni-Quercion iliciscan be recognised the new Sardinian-Corsican suballianceClematido cirrhosae-Quercenion ilicis(typus:Prasio majoris-Quercetum ilicisass. nova), which is endemic to the Sardinian and Corsican sectors of the Italo-Tyrrhenian Province. Consequently, the suballianceFraxino orni-Quercenion ilicis, which is the typical of the allianceFraxino orni-Quercion ilicis, has also been proposed.