Edible flowers are becoming an essential component of people’s nutrition in the Mediterranean basin. In the last decades, many researchers also have focused their attention on the nutritional composition of the edible flowers, as well as their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, including studies on their safety issues. Despite the growing interest in the use of flowers in human nutrition, the ethnobotanical literature is lacking coverage of some important issues, particularly those which concern the use of flowers in the folk tradition. Only recently, a review regarding the contribution of 32 edible flowers to the Mediterranean diet was published. The aim of the present review is to document the plant lore regarding the wild and cultivated edible flowers consumed in the Mediterranean basin. Based on the 112 studies reviewed, we documented 251 taxa as being used in the Mediterranean basin as edible flowers. The plant species belong to 45 families and 141 genera. Asteraceae (54 taxa) is the most frequently cited family. Sambucus nigra L. is the most cited species. This study can be the basis for future research on the supposed bioactivity and toxicity of wild and cultivated flowers.

Lipophilic antioxidants are essential components, which have been pointed as bioactive beneficial for human health. This study aimed at evaluating the effect of domestic cooking (boiling, steaming) on the main carotenoids (lutein and β-carotene) and tocols in four different green leafy vegetables: Sonchus asper L. Hill, Sonchus oleraceus L., Spinacia oleracea L. and Cichorium intybus L. The total content of the analyzed compounds was determined following the method of alkaline hydrolysis of the matrix and solvent extraction. The leaching of soluble solids after domestic cooking was found to determine a gain in the investigated bioactive compounds in the cooked vegetables, so to cause an apparent content increase in all leafy vegetables, when expressed as mg/100 g dry matter. Considering solid losses, all lipophilic compounds were not affected by boiling; on the contrary, steaming slightly significantly decreased the contents of lutein and β-carotene (on average 20 and 15%, respectively).

Despite the large number of data published in Italy on WEPs, there is no database providing a complete knowledge framework. Hence the need to design a database of the Italian alimurgic flora: AlimurgITA. Only strictly alimurgic taxa were chosen, excluding casual alien and cultivated ones. The collected data come from an archive of 358 texts (books and scientific articles) from 1918 to date, chosen with appropriate criteria. For each taxon, the part of the plant used, the method of use, the chorotype, the biological form and the regional distribution in Italy were considered. The 1103 taxa of edible flora already entered in the database equal 13.09% of Italian flora. The most widespread family is that of the Asteraceae (20.22%); the most widely used taxa are Cichorium intybus and Borago officinalis. The not homogeneous regional distribution of WEPs (maximum in the south and minimum in the north) has been interpreted. Texts published reached its peak during the 2001–2010 decade. A database for Italian WEPs is important to have a synthesis and to represent the richness and complexity of this knowledge, also in light of its potential for cultural enhancement, as well as its applications for the agri-food system.

In 1766, the agricultural scientist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti described for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the wild and cultivated plant species that could be used, in times of famine, to increase the quantity of flour or vegetable mass in bread making. These wild plants can be defined as wild edible plants (WEPs) or “alimurgic species”, a concept usually traced back to Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti himself. The 342 plant names mentioned in the text are in the Tuscan vernacular, so a research work was done on bibliographic sources from the 1800s in order to match them with their current nomenclature. This process led to an “alimurgic flora” repertoire based on the writing of Targioni Tozzetti; and a comparison with our AlimurgITA database of 1103 wild edible plants used in Italy. It is particularly interesting that in his short treatise, Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti identified eight toxic plants (corresponding to 14 species), indicating how to eliminate the poisonous substances from their useful roots. We treat them in detail, examining their current and past use, their geographical distribution in Italy, and their eventual toxicity. We obtained 343 matches, of which 198 were reliable (certain matches) and 145 possessed some degree of uncertainty (due to generic or collective vernacular names). Among the 198 certain identifications, 140 species are present in the AlimurgITA database (92 mentioned for Tuscany) and 58 are not; for bread-making there are only documentary traces of 53 species for Italy and 7 for Tuscany. Moreover, among the total 198 species, 84 showed some degree of hazard. Researching edible toxic spontaneous species allows: (1) investigation, from an unusual perspective, of a historical period in which the poor conditions of some social strata led to finding unusual solutions to food provision; (2) idea generation to re-enable potentially useful WEPs whose use has been lost. Making a virtue of necessity!

A phytosociological study of the alliance Carpinion orientalis in the hilly and subcoastal areas of the Italian peninsula is presented. These woods are included in the suballiances Laburno-Ostryenion and Lauro-Quercenion; the distinction between these two suballiances is not always easy also because of the conservation status of these forest ecosystems. The hilly and subcoastal Turkey oak woods of the alliance Carpinion orientalis are mainly distributed on the Adriatic side of the Italian peninsula, where they are found on neutro-basic substrata to which these coenoses are linked. The Turkey oak woods of the alliance Teucrio siculi-Quercion cerridis are strongly linked to the acidic substrata typical of the Tyrrhenian side, but are sporadically found on the Adriatic side within small enclaves with more acidic substrata. A numerical analysis allowed us to rearrange the lower hierarchical levels of the associations of Turkey oak woods of the alliance Carpinion orientalis. In particular, the association Lonicero xylostei-Quercetum cerridis is included in the alliance Carpinion orientalis, and the new subassociation festucetosum exaltatae is proposed. The subassociation rosetosum arvensis is proposed for the association Daphno laureolae-Quercetum cerridis, and the new subassociation cytisophylletosum sessilifolii of the association Aceri obtusati-Quercetum cerridis is described.

In this contribution, new data concerning the distribution of vascular flora alien to Italy are presented. It includes new records, confirmations, exclusions, and status changes for Italy or for Italian administrative regions. Nomenclatural and distribution updates published elsewhere are provided as Suppl. material 1.