Citizen science (CS), meaning the participation of the public in scientific research, is very popular for studying many aspects of biodiversity. Plant diversity on the other hand has not been extensively studied with CS in spite of the critical role of plants in ecosystems. To acquire a clearer picture of this field of research we carried out a comparative bibliometric analysis of articles from 2005 to 2026 on four geographical levels: globally, Europe, Mediterranean and Greece. We used the Biblioshiny web app with data extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Differences in both the quantity and the quality of research were shown, as well as a great degree of lack of plant awareness (LPA). Very little research in this field has been conducted for Greece in spite of its rich plant diversity. Our findings also confirm the existence of bias in the socio-economic background of participants in CS. It is worth noting that plant diversity and CS play a key role in achieving the United Nations SDGs. Consequently, plant-focused CS on a global and regional scale should be further evolved to reverse topic development dissimilarities, combat LPA and support sustainable development. Given the context of Greece, amplifying scientific efforts could further develop botanical knowledge and its applications in a biodiversity hotspot.

Mediterranean wetlands are highly sensitive ecosystems, particularly vulnerable to human pressure and shifts in precipitation and temperature regimes. Wetland plants can be particularly threatened in Mediterranean insular contexts, where such habitats are naturally smaller and more fragmented than in their continental counterparts. This study investigated 275 species of vascular wetland plants that were considered to be at least regionally threatened across 2217 islands and islets in the Mediterranean. We provided both global and local IUCN conservation assessments (summarized in a ‘conservation concern’ index) and ‘assessment completion’ (i.e. knowledge level) for each taxon as well as a geographic distribution among islands, wetland types, and life forms. Most of wetland plants were threatened at the regional level, although assessment completion was generally low, except for endemics. Inland and endemic wetland plants were more threatened than the rest. A phylogenetic signal was detected, highlighting that Orchidaceae and Apiaceae were of particularly high conservation concern, while other families, especially Amaranthaceae, exhibited low levels of assessment completion. No geographical patterns were found in terms of conservation concern and assessment completion. Our findings provide critical insights into biodiversity patterns, identify conservation gaps and priorities and contribute to the development of targeted strategies for the protection of wetland plants, which are crucial indicators of the entire natural capital of Mediterranean island ecosystems.

Plants with complex floral morphologies are adapted to be pollinated by restricted pollinator assemblages and may suffer pollinator limitation. Understanding how floral traits and other variables relate to plant vulnerability can provide a powerful tool for predicting the conservation status and prioritizing the assessment of plants with scarce field data. Using circa 3000 records of rare and threatened (sensu IUCN) entomophilous plant taxa from seven Mediterranean countries, we evaluated how six floral traits and other eight intrinsic and extrinsic variables were related to plant vulnerability (less vs. more threatened plants). Besides, we analyzed 29 experts' opinions regarding the floral traits most related to floral complexity. Floral shape, reproductive unit, and flowering duration were good vulnerability indicators. Taxa with lip- and flag-shaped flowers were the most threatened, which agrees with the opinion of experts who considered lip- and flag-shaped flowers to have more complex morphologies. Also, plants with cylindrical inflorescences or solitary flowers were more threatened than those with flat-spherical inflorescences; and longer flowering durations reduced the probability of being threatened. Regarding extrinsic variables, coastal and freshwater habitats, i.e. habitats heavily impacted by human activities, had the highest percentage of highly threatened taxa. Yet, plant vulnerability decreased with maximum elevation and total distribution range. These results may serve as a basis for managers and practitioners when field data are scarce or unavailable, so that, depending on their traits, species could be provisionally listed in Red Lists as deserving priority for assessment to ascertain conservation status and actions.

This study provides a comprehensive and refined framework for the micropropagation of the critically endangered Greek endemic Silene conglomeratica. Using a limited seed stock, a reliable in vitro propagation protocol was developed, supporting both ex situ conservation and potential commercial applications in floriculture and landscape architecture. Nodal explants excised from aseptic seedlings, established on half-strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, were successfully used for culture initiation. Supplementation with 1.0 mg L-1 meta-topolin (mT) and 0.2 mg L-1 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) promoted shoot proliferation. Subsequent subculturing on half-strength Rugini Olive Medium (OM/2) supplemented with 0.5 mg L-1 2-isopentenyladenine (2iP) resulted in high multiplication rates and a high frequency of spontaneous rooting. Rooting initiation was further optimized using OM/2 supplemented with 0.5 mg L-1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). The high acclimatization percentage (80%) confirms the feasibility of this protocol for ex situ conservation and highlights its applicability for nursery production and specialized landscape use. Overall, this study contributes an efficient and scalable propagation strategy that supports both the conservation and sustainable utilization of this valuable endemic species. Future work should focus on refining these protocols through more targeted testing of concentrations and alternative combinations of growth regulators and nutrient compositions.

Mediterranean phryganic ecosystems have been shaped for centuries by recurrent herbivory, yet the long-term ecological consequences of grazing cessation remain insufficiently resolved, particularly in protected island landscapes where conservation management often assumes that exclusion promotes recovery. In these drylands, the removal of grazing redirect assembly processes through shifts in dominance, heterogeneity, and functional strategy expression. Here, we use more than three decades-long grazing discontinuity within the Petrified Forest of Lesvos, an insular Mediterranean geopark, to examine how long-term herbivore exclusion reorganizes plant communities across taxonomic and functional dimensions. By integrating floristic inventories, multivariate community analysis, mixed-effects modeling, indicator species analysis, and community-weighted trait approaches, we reconstruct the ecological signature of grazing release in phryganic ecosystems. Long-term exclusion was associated with a broader species pool and a greater representation of protected taxa, while ungrazed communities exhibited lower Shannon and Simpson diversity, greater compositional dispersion, and a marked shift in dominance structure linked to the expansion of Sarcopoterium spinosum. Community differentiation was accompanied by directional reorganization of functional trait structure, with ungrazed plots characterized by taller vegetation and increased leaf and inflorescence length, indicating release from recurrent biomass removal and a transition toward more structurally expansive strategies. These results show that grazing exclusion does not simply enhance biodiversity, but reorganizes Mediterranean plant communities into an alternative ecological state shaped by altered competitive hierarchies, shrub-mediated filtering, and relaxed herbivory. In disturbance-structured island ecosystems, therefore, the ecological outcomes of protection depend not only on whether grazing is removed, but on how strongly community organization has historically depended on its continued presence.

Large-scale biodiversity databases encompass three main types of data for plants, namely single species point occurrences, co-occurrences in vegetation plots, and checklists for specific areas. Evidence shows that such data types exhibit specific biases, reporting different species assemblages at local scales. We used the Mediterranean Basin, a global biodiversity hotspot with more than 2200 islands larger than 0.01 km2, to compare island vascular plant diversity patterns emerging from occurrence data (Global Biodiversity Information Facility; GBIF), vegetation plots (European Vegetation Archive; EVA), and species checklists (Global Inventory of Flora and Traits; GIFT). We aggregated plant data at the island level and compared geographic coverage, inventory completeness, and taxonomic coverage among these data sources. The combined databases accounted for 8702 species distributed on 790 islands (35.6% of the target islands). Data availability increased from small (26.8%) over medium (75.7%) to large islands (100.0%). Spatial coverage of databases on a 30 & times; 30 km grid was high for GBIF (52.8%) and EVA (45.4%), and low for GIFT (21.7%). GIFT provided higher native and alien species richness values for most of the islands, whereas GBIF and EVA consistently missed a considerable fraction of the expected species richness. Taking GIFT as reference, GBIF, and to a lesser extent EVA, showed a positive bias towards perennial species and an underrepresentation of annuals. Despite their lower taxonomic coverage, GBIF and EVA data can complement our knowledge on Mediterranean islands' plant diversity, providing data for islands lacking plant inventories. Moreover, GBIF and EVA's large datasets can be used for investigating other levels of ecological organisation and modelling single species (GBIF) or population (EVA) trends over space and time. Finally, our results advocate for a coordinated effort to fill the knowledge gaps through data collection and digitisation, possibly integrating data collected by experts by means of citizen science initiatives.

The Mystras UNESCO World Heritage Site (MUWHS) is a medieval historical area located on a small hill facing Sparta in the Mediterranean hotspot of the Peloponnese and receives a high number of visitors annually. The main aim of this study is the inventory and analysis of plant species composition and diversity of the Mystras archaeological area, with emphasis on different aspects of its flora, on the specialist endemic plants, and on the generalist ruderal and alien taxa. A high plant species richness was observed, and 321 vascular plant taxa were registered. Most of the taxa are Mediterranean or have a more widespread distribution, and half of them are ruderals. Concerning endemism, 14 Greek and 7 Balkan endemic taxa were registered. As anticipated, the most species-rich plant families recorded in the study area are Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Poaceae. The total flora is predominantly composed of therophytes, reflecting the site’s Mediterranean climate and disturbance-adapted ecological conditions while the endemic flora is mostly composed of hemicryptophytes. Comparisons of MUWHS plant diversity with four other archaeological sites of the same floristic region of Greece, the Peloponnese, highlighted its high α-diversity on all aspects of its flora and its floristic dissimilarity from the other areas and, additionally, the high plant species richness that is comprised in all five of them. Comparisons of the flora of MUWHS with other Greek and Mediterranean archaeological areas showed significant similarities in the floristic elements considered as deteriogenic for the protected walls and monuments. The findings of our study underscore the urgent need to prioritise the sustainable conservation of archaeological sites such as Mystras. These landscapes are not only cultural monuments but also reservoirs of biodiversity and ecological value. Effective management must, therefore, adopt an integrated approach that balances the preservation of historical structures with the protection of native flora and ecological processes.

Plants are consumed by a variety of organisms, including herbivores and pathogens, which significantly impact plant biomass, diversity, community composition, and ecosystem functioning. While the impacts of vertebrate herbivores are well established, the effects of consumer groups such as insect herbivores, mollusks, and fungal pathogens on plant communities are less clear and remain understudied in many systems. Existing evidence of how they affect plant biomass, diversity, and community composition is mixed, and most studies have focused on individual consumer groups in isolation. However, different consumer groups interact with each other, directly or indirectly, in ways that alter their impacts on plants, and the consequences of these interactions for plant community structure and ecosystem function remain understudied. Further, consumer impacts vary across environmental gradients and likely depend on abiotic conditions such as climate, soil type, or elevation, and biotic conditions such as plant productivity, diversity, or community composition. Existing studies testing the impacts of invertebrate herbivores and fungal pathogens on plant communities differ substantially in methodology, making generalities across large scales difficult. This calls for experimental approaches that implement standardized protocols across many sites. Here, we introduce and report on the methodology of a novel global research network, The Bug-Network (BugNet), that implements standardized consumer-reduction experiments across 5 continents and 18 countries in diverse, herbaceous- or shrub-dominated ecosystems to investigate: (1) the influence of fungal pathogens, insect herbivores, and mollusks on plant diversity and ecosystem functioning, (2) interactions among these consumer groups, and (3) the abiotic and biotic drivers of context-dependent consumer impacts. BugNet aims to advance a predictive understanding of plant-consumer interactions in order to test fundamental ecological hypotheses and improve predictions of global change impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

In the Anthropocene, conservation planning must adapt to rapid environmental changes driving the global biodiversity crisis. The impacts of climate and land-use change are particularly severe in biodiversity hotspots like the Mediterranean Basin, where unique taxa and ecosystems are increasingly at risk. To address these challenges, we conducted a forward-looking conservation gap analysis in Peloponnese, Greece, a regional endemism centre and key component of the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, providing a case study to support the development of cost-effective conservation strategies. We applied a taxonomically and phylogenetically informed approach to identify endemism hotspots across different time-periods. Persistent hotspots were mapped under future climate and land-use scenarios, and their overlap with protected and roadless areas was assessed. Our analysis revealed that endemism hotspots will likely shift geographically and diminish in extent over the coming decades. While key mountainous regions are expected to retain their hotspot status, our results point to a widespread decline in endemism and overall biodiversity loss. Concerningly, the most critical persistent hotspots overlap with extinction risk hotspots. Moreover, up to 46 % of the persistent endemism hotspots are not covered by designated protected areas, and <8 % of those lie within roadless areas. Our results highlight the need for a coordinated multi-dimensional strategy that should include the expansion of the current network of protected areas, the establishment of plant micro-reserves, and the translocation and reinforcement of populations of endemics. The identified conservation gaps represent regions of enduring resilience to environmental change, making them critical targets for long-term conservation planning.

and bracteoles often coloured and enclosing flowers.Flowers hermaphrodite, usually zygomorphic or 2-lipped.Calyx usually 4-or 5-lobed.Corolla 3-or 5-lobed.Stamens 2-5, epipetalous; connective expanded.Ovary superior, bilocular with axile placentation.Fruit usually an explosive capsule with seeds on funicular jaculators.Seeds usually nonendospermous; embryo large.

Endemic island species face heightened extinction risk from climate-driven shifts, yet standard models often underestimate threat levels for those like Quercus alnifolia, an iconic Cypriot oak with pre-adaptations to aridity. Through species distribution modelling, we investigated the potential shifts in its distribution under future climate and land-use change scenarios. Our approach uniquely combines dispersal constraints, detailed soil characteristics, hydrological factors, and anticipated soil erosion data, offering a comprehensive assessment of environmental suitability. We quantified the species’ sensitivity, exposure, and vulnerability to projected changes, conducting a preliminary IUCN extinction risk assessment according to Criteria A and B. Our projections uniformly predict range reductions, with a median decrease of 67.8% by the 2070s under the most extreme scenarios. Additionally, our research indicates Quercus alnifolia’s resilience to diverse erosion conditions and preference for relatively dry climates within a specific annual temperature range. The preliminary IUCN risk assessment designates Quercus alnifolia as Critically Endangered in the future, highlighting the need for focused conservation efforts. Climate and land-use changes are critical threats to the species’ survival, emphasising the importance of comprehensive modelling techniques and the urgent requirement for dedicated conservation measures to safeguard this iconic species.

Motivation: The intrinsic characteristics of islands make them a unique study system for the investigation of ecological and evolutionary dynamics. The Mediterranean Basin, an island-rich biodiversity hotspot, still lacks a comprehensive spatial database for these geographic features. This study presents the first comprehensive spatial database of all Mediterranean islands larger than 0.01 km(2), aiding ecological investigations and interdisciplinary research. Main types of variable contained: The MEDIS spatial database offers detailed information on 39 geographic, climatic, ecological and land-use variables, including island area, perimeter, isolation metrics, climatic space, terrain data, land cover, palaeogeography, road networks and geological information, providing a multifaceted view of each island's characteristics. Spatial location and grain: The study encompasses 2217 islands in the Mediterranean Basin larger than 0.01 km(2). The spatial grain of the datasets on which the selected variables are based varies from 10 m (ESA WorldCover) to 1 km (CHELSA-BIOCLIM+). Time period and grain: The spatial database incorporates data from various sources, each with its own timeframe, such as the Global Shoreline Vector from 2014 Landsat imagery and the WorldCover dataset from 2021. Historical data like the Paleocoastlines GIS dataset offer insights into island configurations during the Last Glacial Maximum. Major taxa and level of measurement: While not focusing on specific taxa, the study lays the foundation for comprehensive research on Mediterranean islands, facilitating comparisons and investigations into the distribution of native, endemic or alien species. The level of measurement is extensive, encompassing a wide range of variables and providing polygonal features rather than centroids' coordinates.

Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) play a critical role in providing ecosystem services through their provision of herbal remedies, food and natural skin care products, their integration into local economies, and maintaining pollinators’ diversity and populations and ecosystem functioning. Mountainous regions, such as Chelmos-Vouraikos National Park (CVNP), represent unique reservoirs of endemic MAP diversity that require conservation prioritisation. This study aims to provide insights into the sustainable management of MAPs, contributing to efforts to protect Mediterranean biodiversity amid the dual challenges of climate and land-use change, using a suite of macroecological modelling techniques. Following a Species Distribution Modelling framework, we investigated the vulnerability of endemic and non-endemic MAPs to climate and land-use changes. We examined the potential shifts in MAP diversity, distribution, and conservation hotspots within the CVNP. Our results revealed species-specific responses, with endemic taxa facing severe range contractions and non-endemic taxa initially expanding but eventually declining, particularly under land-use change scenarios. Local biodiversity hotspots are projected to shift altitudinally, with considerable area losses in the coming decades and elevated species turnover predicted throughout the CVNP, leading to biotic homogenization. Climate and land-use changes jointly threaten MAP diversity, calling for adaptive conservation strategies, thus highlighting the importance of proactive measures, such as awareness raising, establishing plant micro-reserves, assisted translocation, and promoting sustainable harvesting to protect these species within the CVNP. Our study offers vital insights for managing biodiversity hotspots amid global change pressures, stressing the need to integrate ecological and socioeconomic factors.

Climate- and land-use change stand as primary threats to terrestrial biodiversity. Yet, their synergistic impacts on species distributions remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted the first-ever comprehensive species distribution analysis on an entire regional endemism centre within an eastern Mediterranean country, incorporating dynamic land-use/land-cover change data together with climate change scenarios. Specifically, we apply species distribution modelling and spatial data analysis techniques to compare the individual and synergistic effects of these environmental drivers on the endemic vascular flora of Peloponnese, focusing on potential range contractions, altitudinal shifts, and habitat fragmentation levels. Moreover, we identify fine-scale present and potential future endemism hotspots within our study area, incorporating taxonomic and phylogenetic information. Overall, we aim to enhance our current understanding of endemism patterns and contribute to the development of future-proof conservation strategies for safeguarding Greece's endangered endemic flora. The integration of land-use change projections with climate change yielded less severe impacts compared to the effects anticipated when considering climatic variables alone. Most taxa are expected to undergo significant range declines and nearly half might experience increased habitat fragmentation, due to the synergistic effects of climate- and land-use change. We identified endemism hotspots, which are concentrated in or along the main Peloponnesian mountain massifs. However, our predictions indicate that areas presently recognized as endemism hotspots will undergo a concerning area decline, across all future scenarios considered in this study. Our findings highlight the importance of including dynamic land-use variables alongside climatic predictors when projecting species distributions under global change. Moreover, we showed that endemism hotspots are not static and considering their potential geographic shifts is paramount to delineate effective forward-looking conservation strategies.

The Epidaurus UNESCO World Heritage site (EPD) is a famous archaeological area that is located in a small valley in the Peloponnese and receives more than 250,000 visitors annually. The study of the plant diversity of the site is in the framework of a continuous research project concerning archaeological areas of the Peloponnese and in the context of a project by the Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs of Greece that started during 2023 to study the biodiversity of the archaeological areas of Greece. The main aim of this study is the exploration and analysis of the plant species composition and diversity of the Epidaurus archaeological area, with an emphasis on endemic plants, on ruderal and alien taxa as well as on environmental and disturbance indicators and the cultural ecosystem services they provide. This study revealed a high species richness consisting of 446 plant taxa. Most of them are Mediterranean and widespread, ruderals and medium disturbance indicators, but there are also 12 Greek endemic taxa. The richest in the taxa families are Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae. Therophytes predominate in the total flora registered and hemicryptophytes predominate in the endemics. Comparisons of the EPD’s plant diversity with other archaeological areas of Greece and the Mediterranean revealed its richness and unique character. Management and protection in archaeological areas such as the Epidaurus must focus on the sustainable conservation of their relationship with their natural environment.

. An account of the genus Acanthus in Greece is presented. Descriptions of the species with notes on ecology and geographical distribution, illustrations, maps and a key to the taxa are provided. Acanthus greuterianus is reduced to synonymy of A. caroli-alexandri .

The Mediterranean Basin is one of the World’s plant diversity hotspots and a region prone to several anthropic pressures, besides being one of the World’s areas most susceptible to climate change. In this region, which hosts a high percentage of threatened species, there has been a large increase in practical conservation actions to prevent the extinction of many plants or improve their conservation status. In this framework, plant translocations have become increasingly important. To obtain a picture of the status and to depict possible directions, data on plant translocations was collected through the available databases, national experts, and the grey literature available online. Overall, a list of 836 translocations relating to 572 plant species was found. These actions are mainly concentrated in Spain, France, and Italy (c. 87%) and, except for some pioneering actions, translocations have strongly increased starting from 2010. A subsequent in-depth bibliographic search of the scientific databases was conducted to determine how much information about plant translocations was documented in the scientific literature. This search resulted in a list of 133 peer-reviewed papers, of which only 17 describing one or more translocations and, as a whole, reporting 101 experiences carried out on 56 plant species. Our research highlighted a great discrepancy between the scarce scientific documentation in comparison to the large number of practical conservation actions carried out. The great experience gained in these translocations constitutes an enormous heritage potentially available to implement the necessary conservation actions to preserve the plant diversity of the Mediterranean Basin.

Chelmos-Vouraikos National Park is a floristic diversity and endemism hotspot in Greece and one of the main areas where Greek endemic taxa, preliminary assessed as critically endangered and threatened under the IUCN Criteria A and B, are mainly concentrated. The climate and land-cover change impacts on rare and endemic species distributions is more prominent in regional biodiversity hotspots. The main aims of the current study were: (a) to investigate how climate and land-cover change may alter the distribution of four single mountain endemics and three very rare Peloponnesian endemic taxa of the National Park via a species distribution modelling approach, and (b) to estimate the current and future extinction risk of the aforementioned taxa based on the IUCN Criteria A and B, in order to investigate the need for designing an effective plant micro-reserve network and to support decision making on spatial planning efforts and conservation research for a sustainable, integrated management. Most of the taxa analyzed are expected to continue to be considered as critically endangered based on both Criteria A and B under all land-cover/land-use scenarios, GCM/RCP and time-period combinations, while two, namely Alchemilla aroanica and Silene conglomeratica, are projected to become extinct in most future climate change scenarios. When land-cover/land-use data were included in the analyses, these negative effects were less pronounced. However, Silene conglomeratica, the rarest mountain endemic found in the study area, is still expected to face substantial range decline. Our results highlight the urgent need for the establishment of micro-reserves for these taxa.

Conservation of biological and cultural diversity ensures human and environmental well-being. Cultural heritage sites have been recognized as a refuge for important plant species. The Peloponnese in Greece hosts especially diverse cultural heritage sites, and is characterized by high plant diversity and endemism, being one of the Mediterranean Basin's biodiversity hotspots. However, there is a lack of studies on the vascular flora in important cultural heritage sites, including castles and their surroundings. The aim of this study is the exploration of different aspects of the flora found in culturally important castles located in the Eastern Peloponnese, with emphasis on wall and cliff plants, as well as on ruderal and alien ones. Furthermore, the assessment of the interactions of natural plant communities with cultural elements such as castles' walls is vital for the proper management of the heritage sites and for highlighting their natural elements. Our results reveal the rich plant diversity and high degree of endemism of the areas studied. The assessment of the conservation of biodiversity in the sites studied underlines the need for proper management and sustainable use of both the cultural and natural heritage.