International Botanical Congress - Madrid 2024

The 20th edition of the International Botanical Congress (IBC) took place in Madrid from July 21 to 27, 2024, organized by the Sociedad Botánica Española (SEBOT) and the Real Jardin Botanico of Madrid, with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities of the Spanish Government.

This significant event, which registered about 5,000 botanists from around the world, was also attended by 4 professors and researchers from the University of Sassari: Giuseppe Brundu and Vanessa Lozano from the Department of Agriculture, and Emmanuele Farris and Alfredo Maccioni from the Department of Chemical, Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences.

The four representatives of our university participated in the proceedings with a series of oral and poster contributions. Farris and Maccioni, along with colleagues from the French CNRS (Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology of Montpellier), the University of Montpellier, and the Spanish CSIC (Botanical Institute of Barcelona), gave a presentation on Friday, July 26, about the hybridization between Cyclamen violaceum and Cyclamen balearicum in northwestern Sardinia (Fig. 1), demonstrating how this area is a Mediterranean crossroads of ongoing evolutionary processes. Additionally, they presented two poster contributions: one on the conservation of one of the 10 most endangered Sardinian plant species, the Sardinian bugloss (Anchusa sardoa), a boraginaceae that lives exclusively in the dune system of Porto Conte Bay (Alghero) and has declined by more than 80% in the last 20 years (Fig. 2). The two researchers, together with colleagues from the Center for Biodiversity Conservation and the Seed Bank of the University of Cagliari and technicians from the Porto Conte Park, presented the initial results of an in situ and ex situ conservation action, currently ongoing, to try to safeguard this unique species. The second poster contribution concerned the ecological dynamics of small aromatic shrubs (rosemary, helichrysum, Mediterranean germander) in the evolutionary processes of Mediterranean coastal vegetation (Fig. 3). Together with researchers from the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences of the University of Cagliari, the authors of the study highlighted the selective role of small Mediterranean aromatic shrubs in conditioning which other species can settle under and around their canopy, probably due to the essential oils they produce.

Brundu and Lozano, in collaboration with Flavio Marzialetti (UNISS, Department of Agriculture), presented a poster (Fig. 4) on the distribution in various regional habitats of the 640 alien plant species voluntarily or accidentally introduced in Sardinia (348 casual, 215 naturalized, 77 invasive). Giuseppe Brundu also presented a poster dedicated to the launch of the national working group of the Italian Botanical Society on monumental trees. Vanessa Lozano gave an oral presentation on the segetal flora of Sardinian artichoke fields, highlighting the peculiar aspects of the presence of alien neophyte and archaeophyte species in relation to management practices.

It is important to note that many of the studies conducted in Sardinia and presented on this important international stage were funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU - National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) with the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) and/or Sardinia Innovation Ecosystem (e.INS), to which the authors are affiliated: this demonstrates the impact of these projects on scientific research and their repercussions on the Sardinian territory, even in an international context.