Volume 12 (2013): Edizione 2 (December 2013)

Historical and current occurrence of obligate halophyte Artemisia santonicum subsp. patens was studied in Slovakia during 2001-2012. The species has been occurred in the Podunajska nižina Lowland and the Vychodoslovenska nižina Lowland; 35 localities were found in total. The data from the Zahorska nižina Lowland is erroneous. Recently the number of localities decreased markedly and the species was confirmed only in 17 sites. Most of them (16) is situated in the Podunajska nižina Lowland and a single one has been confirmed in the Vychodoslovenska nižina Lowland. Based on our data, Artemisia santonicum subsp. patens belongs to the endangered (EN A2ac+4c) plants of the Slovak flora according to IUCN categories and criteria, because 50 % of locations were destroyed and survival prognosis is unfavorable for the most recent populations.

Ageratina adenophora is recorded for the first time in Italy (Campania region). Its naturalization status and ecology are discussed, also providing a morphological comparison with the related taxa (both occurring in Italy) A. ligustrina and Eupatorium cannabinum. Some remarks on potential threats for habitat and native flora are provided as well.

In some regions of Slovakia, black alder forest vegetation has not been documented appropriately yet. This paper is the first vegetation study presenting the phytosociological data and measured environmental parameters from the western part of central Slovakia. The data set was classified by using a modified TWINSPAN algorithm, which allowed us to discern floristically and ecologically distinctive plant communities. They correspond to the associations Stellario nemorum-Alnetum glutinosae Lohmeyer 1957 (riparian alder vegetation on mesic to humid sites along small brooks) and Carici acutiformis-Alnetum glutinosae Scamoni 1935 (eutrophic black alder carr forests in the colline zone) with the variants of Ligustrum vulgare and Galium palustre. The community Carici elongatae-Alnetum glutinosae Schwickerath 1933 (mesotrophic to eutrophic alder carr vegetation growing on permanently waterlogged soils), documented only with two phytosociological relevés, was distinguished following expert knowledge. A floristic and ecological pattern of these associations is presented.

The major compositional gradients were interpreted based on Ellenberg’s indicator values and the values of environmental variables recorded during the field sampling in the growing season 2011. The principal component analysis revealed the importance of soil moisture, light availability, portion of open water and soil surface for species composition variability at the association level, whereas the variants of Carici acutiformis-Alnetum glutinosae were sorted along the acidity gradient.

A list of corrected and typified grassland communities of the class Molinio-Arrhenatheretea Tx. 1937 occurring in Serbia was provided. The nomenclature rules of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature were strictly followed. Syntaxonomic affiliation of communities to higher syntaxa was assessed according to the existing syntaxonomical schemes for Serbia, i.e. according to the position determined by the original source. Higher syntaxa followed the synsystem of the so-called “EuroVegChecklist”. Since syntaxonomic disagreements concerning a certain plant association’s position within the whole classification system have not been discussed, such a list should serve as the starting point for a further revision of the status of grassland communities in Serbia. So far, a total of 87 plant communities of the class Molinio-Arrhenatheretea were described for Serbia.

The list provided here will enable more precise and more accurate mapping of vegetation in Serbia, as well as classification of these communities into the Habitat Directive which will enable the establishment of the Red list of Habitats for Serbia.

The Atlas of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) of Slovenia (Verovnik et al. 2012) treats 179 butterfly species whose occurrence in Slovenia is confirmed, and 24 species for which only unconfirmed data exist. By the end of 2011, 212.936 distribution records by 167 contributing authors were collected for the Atlas. The Digital database of butterflies of the Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts was not considered in the process of collecting the data for the Atlas. This database contains 30.630 distribution records for butterfly species found in Slovenia from research projects undertaken by the Institute from 1995 to date. Given that this rich data source was not included in the Atlas, I here provide a supplement to the existing Atlas, reporting 1529 new records for 140 butterfly species. These updates provide new areas or range limits for 14 species, the presence of 71 species in areas the Atlas designated as “white spots”, new information on 3 species with very limited distribution in Slovenia, and additional corroboration for distribution of 27 species that the Atlas covered.

This paper provides phytosociological tables that describe scrub and forest communities with Alnus viridis in the Slovenian Alps. We described three new associations: Rhododendro hirsuti-Alnetum viridis (a green alder community on calcareous bedrock in the Eastern and Southeastern Alps), Huperzio selagi-Alnetum viridis (a green alder community in the silicate rocks under Mt. Komen in the eastern Savinja Alps) and Alno viridis- Sorbetum aucupariae (a successional stage of mountain ash and green alder on potential beech sites in the foothills of the southern Julian Alps; similar stages are known also elsewhere in the Alps), and presented additional three associations (Polysticho lonchitis-Fagetum, Rhodothamno-Laricetum and Rhododendro hirsuti-Pinetum mugo) whose stands comprise green alder.