La componente floristica dei giardini storici siciliani

Floristic elements of historical Sicilian gardens. – The ornamental flora of historical Sicilian gardens, com- piled on recent literature data and new investigations on representative sites is here analyzed. The catalogue of taxa with their distribution in investigated gardens is presented together with the floristic list alphabetically ordered by family. In total 736 taxa, belonging to 363 genera and 124 families were recorded. Rosaceae, Arecaceae, Cactaceae, Agavaceae, Oleaceae, Liliaceae and Moraceae are the richest families in species. The main part of such flora consists of American and Asiatic taxa. The most recurring species are Phoenix canariensis, Nerium oleander, Pittosporum tobira, Pinus halepensis, Ligustrum lucidum, Chamaerops humilis, Hedera helix, Laurus nobilis, Buxus sempervirens and Platycladus orientalis. For their richness and floristic differentiation the garden of Villa Whitaker in Malfitano (Palermo), the garden Duca di Cesarò of Taormina and the Garden Garibaldi of Ribera (Agrigento), with 198, 190 and 152 specific and infraspecific taxa respectively, have a particular significance.