BRYOPHYTES IN LIGURIAN 4090 HABITAT: ENDEMIC ORO-MEDITERRANEAN HEATHS WITH GORSE (GENISTA DESOLEANA)

Abstract

Despite Mediterranean vegetation is largely investigated, the knowledge about the Bryophytes living in this highly heterogeneous environment is still scarce. For some habitat, such as the endemic oro-Mediterranean heaths with gorse (Natura 2000 habitat 4090), no data on Bryophytes are available. We investigated the Bryophytes occurring in twelve Genista desoleana hedgehog-heaths in eastern Liguria (NW Italy). We proposed a new method for sampling mosses in arid habitats with poor bryophytic coverage. Moreover, we provided the first preliminary checklist of Bryophytes occurring in the Ligurian 4090 Habitat. As expected, Bryophytes showed very low diversity and coverage, mainly forming small colonies hidden under the shrubs. Several stress-tolerant and ruderal taxa were found, and Weissia controversa Hedw. var. controversa resulted the most frequent and abundant species.