An updated inventory of the native vascular flora of Italy, providing details on the occurrence at regional level, is presented. The checklist includes 8195 taxa (6417 species and 1778 subspecies), distributed in 1092 genera and 152 families; 23 taxa are lycophytes, 108 ferns and fern allies, 30 gymnosperms and 8034 angiosperms. The taxa currently occurring in Italy are 7483, while 568 taxa have not been confirmed in recent times, 99 are doubtfully occurring in the country and 19 are data deficient. Out of the 568 not confirmed taxa, 26 are considered extinct or possibly extinct.

An updated inventory of the vascular flora alien to Italy, providing details on the occurrence at regional level, is presented. The checklist includes 1597 species, subspecies, and hybrids, distributed in 725 genera and 152 families; 2 taxa are lycophytes, 11 ferns and fern allies, 33 gymnosperms, and 1551 angiosperms. 157 taxa are archaeophytes and 1440 neophytes. The alien taxa currently established in Italy are 791 (570 naturalized and 221 invasive), while 705 taxa are casual aliens, 4 are not assessed, 7 are of unknown regional distribution, 47 have not been confirmed in recent times, 3 are considered extinct or possibly extinct in the country, and 40 are doubtfully occurring in Italy. This checklist allows to establish an up-to-date number (9792) of taxa constituting the whole (native and alien) Italian flora.

One of the most popular, cheap and widely used approaches in comparative cytogenetics – especially by botanists – is that concerning intrachromosoma

There is an extensive literature on the diversity of karyotypes found in genera within Liliaceae, but there has been no attempt to analyse these data within a robust phylogenetic framework. In part this has been due to a lack of consensus on which genera comprise Liliaceae and the relationships between them. Recently, however, this changed with the proposal for a relatively broad circumscription of Liliaceae comprising 15 genera and an improved understanding of the evolutionary relationships between them. Thus there is now the opportunity to examine patterns and trends in chromosome evolution across the family as a whole. Based on an extensive literature survey, karyo-morphometric features for 217 species belonging to all genera in Liliaceae sensu the APG (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) were obtained. Included in the data set were basic chromosome number, ploidy, chromosome total haploid length (THL) and 13 different measures of karyotype asymmetry. In addition, genome size estimates for all species studied were inferred from THLs using a power regression model constructed from the data set. Trends in karyotype evolution were analysed by superimposing the karyological data onto a phylogenetic framework for Liliaceae. Combining the large amount of data enabled mean karyotypes to be produced, highlighting marked differences in karyotype structure between the 15 genera. Further differences were noted when various parameters for analysing karyotype asymmetry were assessed. By examining the effects of increasing genome size on karyotype asymmetry, it was shown that in many but not all (e.g. Fritillaria and all of Tulipeae) species, the additional DNA was added preferentially to the long arms of the shorter chromosomes rather than being distributed across the whole karyotype. This unequal pattern of DNA addition is novel, contrasting with the equal and proportional patterns of DNA increase previously reported. Overall, the large-scale analyses of karyotype features within a well-supported phylogenetic framework enabled the most likely patterns of chromosome evolution in Liliaceae to be reconstructed, highlighting diverse modes of karyotype evolution, even within this comparatively small monocot family.