Calendula maritima. Picture extracted from the IUCN website (www.iucn.org) © Anna Giordano for the IUCN's MIPSG-SSC Top 50 of Mediterranean Island Plants. This image is a link to the IUCN booklet. Please consult there the page 92-93.
The Sicilian endemic plant Calendula maritima Guss. is one of the most relevant endangered species of the Mediterranean basin (see information in the Top50 list of Mediterranean Island Plants (http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/mediterranean_top50_en.pdf). Its conservation, including the proposal to give protection to the small sites where the species lives, has been largely defended by the Sicilian botanists, and particularly by Dr. Angelo Troià, former director of the Nature Reserve Saline di Trapani e Paceco, and one of the most enthusiastic defenders of the PMR philosophy. Most populations of C. maritima remain unprotected and even the classical one, found into the nature reserve boundaries, was threatened by the projected enlargement of a close harbour in Marsala.
The Regional Province of Trapani, following the proposal of his councilior Mr. Salvatore Daidone, has recently passed an amendment to the regional provisions, in order to improve the long-term protection of the species, and to convert it into a province symbol for nature conservation. A recent letter received from Mr. Girolamo Turamo, president of the Province of Trapani, confirm us the approval of this proposal. Please receive our congratulations from this blog, and our desire to go on with the conservation of this endangered species.
Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendula_maritima IUCN redlist fact sheet: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/61618/0
Dr. Angelo Troìa presenting the results of the project EOLIFE for the conservation of endangered plants of the Eolian Islands (Sicily, Italy), during the international workshop on PMRs organized by Dr. Costas Thanos in The Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (Crete, Greece), 24.11.2005, © Emilio Laguna
