Blog

Seminar in the Agricultural Research Institute presenting the program and the results from the project activities

By Constantinos Nikiforou On the 17th of September 2014, a seminar was organised in the Agricultural Research Institute, which presented the program and the results from the project activities. The first presentation by Angelos Kyratzis focused on the project activities and on the partner’s profile. The second presentation by Takis Papachrystophorou was about the prioritization procedures followed for the selection of taxa and populations and for...(read more)

Presentation of the project in Chania, Crete

The 16th "Agricultural August" exhibition, held in Chania, Crete, 1-10 August 2014, was an opportunity for the Mediterranean Plant Conservation Unit of MAICh to present the project to the wide public. The exhibition is organised every year by the Municipality of Chania and its thematic topic this year was: “Cretan Flora: Health, Nutrition, Tourism”. Hundreds of visitors, local people and tourists, have been informed about the...(read more)

Joint field trips for seed collections in Crete: 8, 9 & 10 July 2014

The Mediterranean Plant Conservation Unit of MAICh organised 3 joint field trips for seed collections in Crete. Laetitia Hugot and Carole Piazza from the Conservatoire Botanique National de la Corse, project partner in Corsica, set out with the MAICh team for some of the last collections to be made for the project in Crete. Day 1, 8 July: Spina & Palaiochora Arum cyrenaicum was collected in Spina and Bolanthus creutzburgii subsp. zaffranii was...(read more)

Seeds of Erodium crassifolium

Seeds of Erodium crassifolium L'Hér. ex Aiton have been collected by the Agricultural Research Institute Cyprus for the project. This photo has been taken from an individual plant grown from seeds which were germinated for the purpose of germination tests Photo: Angelos Kryratzis

Sending MAVA project postcards to stakeholders in Cyprus.

During the week (20/1/14 – 26/1/14), MAVA postcards accompanied with a short document about the project have been sent to politicians and to national stakeholders related to biodiversity. More than 100 postcards sets have been sent. The recipients included among others: the President of the Republic of Cyprus, the Archbishop, the President of Cyprus Parliament, the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment of the Parliament, the...(read more)

Seeds collections from Cyprus arrived to the Millennium Seed Bank

Last week the first batch with seed collections, after the second seed collecting season of the project, have arrived to the Millennium Seed Bank. The partners from The Agricultural Research Institute Nicosia have sent 44 high quality seed collections. Most of them belong to endemic and threatened plant species like Arabis purpurea, Onobrychis venosa, Astragalus cyprius, Bupleurum sintenenisii, Silene laevigata, Allium cupani subsp. cyprium, Ranunculus...(read more)

Two posters presented by MAICh at the 13th Panhellenic Conference of the Hellenic Botanical Society

The 13th Panhellenic Conference of the Hellenic Botanical Society, entitled 'The green of hope: Botany today- theory and practice', was held at the Aristotle University Research Dissemination Centre at Thessaloniki (Greece) from 3 to 6 October 2013. More than a hundred people from all over Greece participated. The general topics of the Conference included: Plant Cytology - Morphology – Anatomy, Molecular Biology-Bioinformatics, Physiology...(read more)

Joint Field Trip to Corsica

La Corse possède une diversité d’espèces, d’habitats et de paysages remarquable et encore en bon état comparativement à d’autres régions du littoral méditerranéen. Avec près de 300 taxons endémiques dont 130 strictement corses (soit 6,3 % de la flore indigène), l’île possède également une richesse spécifique remarquable...(read more)

An article about the project had been published in the last issue of “Conservación Vegetal”.

An article about the project had been published in the last issue of “Conservación Vegetal”. This is the newsletter of the IUCN Spanish Committee for flora conservation and the Spanish Society for Plant Biology Conservation (SEBICOP). http://www.uam.es/otros/consveg/documentos/numero17.pdf (The article is in the section “Sin fronteras”)

International workshop on plant conservation on Mediterranean islands

All the presentations given at the workshop are now available from the project website. Reports from an international workshop on plant conservation on Mediterranean islands are now available. As part of the Kew-led project ‘Ensuring the survival of endangered plants in the Mediterranean’, 60 delegates from five European countries attended an international workshop at L’Orto Botanico di Catania, Sicily, on 18 – 20 April...(read more)

Collecting seeds on Aphrodite’s island

On a beautiful Mediterranean island where time stops, and where legend relates that Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was born, we found a paradise of endemic plants. Indeed there are 139 plants that grow only on this beautiful island of Cyprus, representing 8.55% of the flora. It’s tempting to think that this richness of endemic plants has been influenced by the goddess herself. Unfortunately however, the answer lies in the theory of island...(read more)

Germination and dormancy in eight native plant species of Crete Island

My experiment as part of my M.Sc. thesis includes description of the external morphology of the seed, embryo morphology and seed anatomy, as well as germination tests for eight monocot plants, native on Crete Island (Juncus acutus Gladiolus italicus, Cyperus capitatus, Elytrigia juncea, Elytrigia atherica, Typha domingensis, Parapholis filiformis, Triplachne nitens). The germination tests were carried out under constantly controlled temperature and...(read more)

Conservation and Management of Plant Diversity in Hotspots

CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF PLANT DIVERSITY IN HOTSPOTS IV PhD. Summer School (Montarbu di Seui, 2013 June 17th -21st) 17th June 2013 Here we are writing on our experience of the 2013 PhD. Summer School that took place from June 17th to 21th in the area of the “Tacchi d’Ogliastra”,. Again we had the privilege of being hosted in a guest house of the Forest Agency of Sardinia, in this case in that of the Caserma Ula located...(read more)

Summary of research project and seed bank activities

In the framework of the research project "Taxonomical investigations on the endemic species of the Sicilian flora" partially funded by MAVA, many studies have been carried out on the endemic flora of Sicily, as well as on some poorly investigated critical groups. These researches have been chiefly focused on the systematics and nomenclatural aspects, using karyological, chorological, macro- and micro-morphological, carpological and seed...(read more)

Molecular Characterization of Secondary dormancy in the annual taxon Silene integripetala subsp. greuteri

My name is Manolis Perathorakis. I am from Chania, Crete. I am a biologist and at the present I am post graduate student in MAICH. My work focuses on the genetic basis of plant secondary dormancy. My model plant is Silene integripetala subsp. greuteri, a small endemic threatened plant of Crete. I have conducted full scale germination tests under various conditions of light and temperature. Specifically, I studied germination under 5 different...(read more)

How to recycle your bridal veil for seed collecting

Between 15 and 19 June I was in Mallorca and Ibiza collecting seeds and participating in a Radio and TV programme with the staff from “Jardí Botánic de Sòller”. One day we collected seeds in “Serra de Tramuntana” in the North of the island, an area rich in endemic flora. In particular, we went to the area of “Massanella” (one of the highest peaks on the island at 1345 metres) to collect seeds of...(read more)

Hypericum aegypticum located again in West Crete!

Hypericum aegypticum is a dwarf shrub that grows on calcareous coastal cliffs and has a restricted Mediterranean distribution. It is represented in Crete by subsp. webbii, which also occurs in the western Peloponnese, the Ionian Islands, Sardenia, Lambedusa (Sicily) and Malta. Two other subspecies occur in North Africa, subsp. aegypticum  in Libya and subsp. maroccanum in Morocco and Algeria. Hypericum aegypticum subsp. webbii (Photo: MPCU,...(read more)

Summary of Thesis project: Seed dormancy and germination niches of Mediterranean species along an altitudinal gradient in Sardinia

UNIVERSITY OF CAGLIARI DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN BOTANICA AMBIENTALE E APPLICATA (XXVII CICLO) Coordinator: Prof. Gianluigi Bacchetta SUMMARY OF THESIS PROJECT Seed dormancy and germination niches of Mediterranean species along an altitudinal gradient in Sardinia The objectives of the thesis project are to evaluate the effect of environmental factors on the thermal requirements for seed dormancy loss and germination of Mediterranean...(read more)

Seed and germination tests photos from Cyprus

1. Sideritis perfoliata Species collected in the 2nd year of the project from the area Phiti, Paphos on the side of the fields and roads. Conditions of germination test that took place in the period April-May of 2013 were: substrate 1% agar + gibberellins, temperature 15oC, dark and humidity 60% Rh. Germination test results (% success): 97% Fig. 1 Seeds photo from stereo-microscope (1a) and germination test photo (1b) of the species Sideritis...(read more)

Great Project Milestone! All seed collections from 1st year duplicated in the Millennium Seed Bank

Good news! This week the last batch from the first MAVA Project collecting season arrived at the Millennium Seed Bank. This batch contained 25 collections of Sardinian plant species. It is a great milestone for the project. In total 520 collections of 446 plant taxa have been duplicated in the MSB as a result of the first collecting season. Now all the partners have started the second collecting season, and we are preparing a joint field trip in...(read more)

Kiwi fruits on the beach in Sicily?

Last 18th-20th April a useful and interesting workshop was held in the beautiful Orto Botanico di Catania, focusing on Plant Conservation on Mediterranean Islands. On the last day we had a field excursion to one of the best conserved protected areas of Sicily. We visited the Natural Reserve of Vendicari in Siracusa, and the Director of this protected area explained the work they were doing to restore and increase the conservation status of the dune...(read more)

Germination test of three species collected in Cyprus

By: Constantinos Nikiforou Photo 1 & 2: Pancratium maritimum. (Photo: C. Nikiforou) In the photos it seems to enlarge the rootlet of species Pancratium maritimum. Species collected in the 2nd year of the project from the area Pachyammos Tyllirias in sandy, chalky or rocky coasts. Conditions of germination test that took place in April of 2013 was: substrate 1% agar, temperature 15oC, light day/night 8/16 and humidity 60%...(read more)

PREPARANDO LA TEMPORADA DE RECOLECCION PARA IBIZA Y FORMENTERA

Este año 2013, una representación de la flora más singular de Ibiza y Formentera, se podrá incorporar a las colecciones del Banco de Germoplasma del Jardín Botánico de Sóller (Mallorca) y duplicarse en el Millennium Seed Bank en Kew (Londres). Photo 1: Poblaciones de Hippocrepis grossi y Genista dorycnifolia subsp. grosii (Photo: M. Vicens) A finales de Marzo, cuando muchas especies ya...(read more)

New alien species for Italy found in Catania during the project workshop

On his way to the workshop from the hotel Valerio Lazzeri of the CCB found Oxalis debilis Kunth growing in a street near the Orto Botanico in Catania. This attractive plant is native to South America, and is considered an alien species in the Italian flora. In Italy Oxalis debilis has been recorded in the wild both in southern and central-northern regions but it has never before been observed in Sicily! Photo 1: Flower of Oxalis debilis Kunth....(read more)

Formation à la "Millennium Seed Bank (MSB)" de Carole PIAZZA et Caroline FAVIER, Conservatoire Botanique National de Corse

Dans le cadre du programme : « Ensuring the survival of endangered plants in the Mediterranean» nous avons été accueilli à la MSB du 17/03/13 au 23/03/13 afin d’effectuer une formation sur les techniques de conservation ex situ. Carole Piazza and Caroline Favier from the “Conservatoire Botanique National de la Corse” sowing seeds in the Millennium Seed Bank with Kirstine Manger (Photo:...(read more)