Exploration and collecting expedition on Cheradi islands (southern Italy), 2004

In spring 2004 a collecting mission to Cheradi islands (southern Italy) was carried out within an exploration cycle aimed to safeguard autochthonous crop genetic resources still present in Italian minor islands. Nowadays autochthonous vegetation of Cheradi is strongly reduced because of the too large cultivated fields of the recent past which, at present, are abandoned. In this first and preliminary expedition 34 taxa were found and classified belonging to 16 botanical families (e.g. Vicia ervilia, Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, wild Daucus carota). Five populations of Cynara cardunculus var. sylvestris were also sampled and collected. Some small areas on Cheradi islands still now represent, botanically, very interesting places, well protected from anthropisation that would merit a more in-depth study.