Erbario Anzalone: a collection of RO Herbarium with a great importance for the floristic knowledge of Lazio region

The Herbarium Museum of Sapienza University of Rome (RO) hosts over one million specimens, in several historical and contemporary collections. It is divided into six main Herbaria (Erbario Romano, E. Generale, E. Cesati, E. Montelucci, E. Anzalone, E. Bazzichelli), and several minor collections (1). The computerized cataloging of RO Herbarium collections, carried out for many years (2, 3), has produced a Filemaker Pro relational database (4), which hosts also georeferenced data from literature, and fields surveys. Databases allow various analyses on data, e.g. the taxonomic composition of the collections, their temporal and geographical coverage, and collectors’ activity. At the same time, catalogues of the collections and floristic atlases can also be produced. Erbario Anzalone is a relevant collection for the knowledge of the flora of central Italy. Bruno Anzalone (1921-2007), full professor from 1974 to 1996 at Sapienza University of Rome, is considered the greatest expert of regional flora in Lazio. The collection, placed in the Erbario Romano room of the Museum, hosts about 37,700 specimens of vascular plants. It is organized in 361 parcels, and arranged in alphabetical order according to family, genus, and species; the delimitation of families and genera follows Pignatti (5). The specimens collected in Lazio are separated from those collected in other areas. The specimens collected by Anzalone in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park are kept in a separate collection (43 parcels). The computerized cataloging of the materials, carried out from 2003 to 2014 with the supervision of the herbarium staff, was completed also thanks to the work of students, as the collection is also used for educational purposes. The nomenclatural update (6, 7) and the georeferencing of the materials is currently underway. The specimens belong to 180 families, and 997 genera. The most represented families are Asteraceae (4,539 specimens), Fabaceae (3,305), Apiaceae (2,174), Lamiaceae (1,718), Brassicaceae (1,677), Caryophyllaceae (1,470), Scrophulariaceae (1,373), Rosaceae (1,370), Poaceae (1,226), and Ranunculaceae (1,069). The most represented genera are Trifolium (552), Vicia (547), Centaurea (486), Ranunculus (455), Silene (452), Senecio (448), Carex (429), Euphorbia (370), Galium (355), and Quercus (335). Over 98% of the specimens were collected in Italy; 69% were collected in Lazio, 8% Trentino-Alto Adige, 7% Abruzzo, and 3% Marche. Anzalone collected about the 90% of the specimens (33,789); among the other 276 recorded contributors, the most active were Cesare Banchieri (682 specimens from Monte Cairo, Frosinone), Luigi Veri (404 specimens from the Ponziane islands), and Edda Lattanzi (356 specimens from different territories). The oldest specimen dates back to 1920, and the most recent one to 2004. The composition of the collection reflects the studies carried out by Anzalone throughout his career, testifying his interest in genera such as Astragalus, Centaurea (Fig. 1), Ferula, Pastinaca, Seseli, and the close relationship between Anzalone and his region. His intense activity, uninterrupted from 1940 to 2004, provided the essential data for drafting the vascular flora of Lazio (8), and for the geolocalised database that RO Museum is preparing (4). Within the database, the Erbario Anzalone provided valuable information on species distribution, useful to perform phytogeographical regionalisations (9), and to map rare, endemic, and endangered taxa (10).