Campanulaceae: distribution data for north-western Italy

This work provides data concerning 61 entities, belonging to 8 genera (Adenophora, Campanula, Jasione, Legousia, Physoplexis, Phyteuma, Platycodon, Trachelium) referred to Campanulaceae, whose presence has been reported in Piedmont, in Aosta Valley and in some neighboring territories that are administratively belonging to Liguria, France and Switzerland. The survey carried out in some herbaria and the selection within the floristic bibliography regarding the territory under examination allowed us to gather a total of 16,220 data, both from exsiccata (7,320) collected between 1786 and 2014 and from literature citations (8,900) dated between 1755 and 2014. Such information has outlined the distribution of the entities in the above mentioned area, based on up-to-date data aligned with the mapping system European Datum 1950. The geographical areas mostly documented are the Aosta Valley and the Susa Valley. The revisions of exsiccata and the comparison with their related bibliographic references have allowed us to make several corrections to the previously published data. In the survey 8 entities (Campanula carnica, C. pyramidalis, C. ramosissima, Legousia falcata, L. hybrida, Physoplexis comosa, Phyteuma hedraianthifolium, P. villarsii) were found not belonging to the territory in question although historically documented for various reasons. For each species, including some endemites, was highlighted distribution according to the most recent data. It was confirmed that some species (Adenophora liliifolia, Campanula cervicaria, C. thyrsoides subsp. thyrsoides, Phyteuma cordatum, Trachelium coeruleum subsp. coeruleum) are characterized by a small number of sites and/or scarce populations. Then it was emphasized the need to provide or to strengthen appropriate forms of protection of the species or the territory in which they grow.