The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. It uses a set of precise criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world. With its strong scientific base, the IUCN Red List is recognized as the most authoritative guide to the status of biological diversity. A series of Regional Red Lists are produced by countries or organizations, which assess the risk of extinction to species within a political management unit.
Hieracium , known by the common name hawkweed and classically as hierakion, is a genus of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, and closely related to dandelion (Taraxacum), chicory (Cichorium), prickly lettuce (Lactuca) and sow thistle (Sonchus), which are part of the tribe Cichorieae. Hawkweeds, with their 10,000+ recorded species and subspecies, do their part to make Asteraceae the second largest family of flowering plants. Some botanists group all these species or subspecies into approximately 800 accepted species, while others prefer to accept several thousand species. Since most hawkweeds reproduce exclusively asexually by means of seeds that are genetically identical to their mother plant, clones or populations that consist of genetically identical plants are formed and some botanists prefer to accept these clones as good species whereas others try to group them into a few hundred more broadly defined species. What is here treated as the single genus Hieracium is now treated by most European experts as two different genera, Hieracium and Pilosella, with species such as Hieracium pilosella, Hieracium floribundum and Hieracium aurantiacum referred to the latter genus. Many members of the genus Pilosella reproduce both by stolons and by seeds, whereas true Hieracium species reproduce only by seeds. In Pilosella, many individual plants are capable of forming both normal sexual and asexual (apomictic) seeds, whereas individual plants of Hieracium only produce one kind of seeds. Another difference is that all species of Pilosella have leaves with smooth (entire) margins whereas most species of Hieracium have distinctly dentate to deeply cut or divided leaves.
A dry roadside dotted with small, ¾ inch red orange flowers, interspersed with very similar yellow ones, and often the white of daisies, is a good sign that you are in Hawkweed country.
Pilosella officinarum, known as mouse-ear hawkweed, is a yellow-flowered species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae, native to Europe and northern Asia. It produces single, lemon-coloured inflorescences. Like most hawkweed species, it is highly variable and is a member of a species complex of several dozens of subspecies and hundreds of varieties and forms. It is an allelopathic plant.
Ganoderma lucidum is a red-colored species of Ganoderma with a limited distribution in Europe and parts of China, where it grows on decaying hardwood trees. Wild populations have been found in the United States in California and Utah, but were likely introduced anthropogenically and naturalized.
Aldrovanda is a genus of carnivorous plants encompassing one extant species and numerous extinct taxa. The genus is named in honor of the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, the founder of the Botanical Garden of Bologna, Orto Botanico dell'Università di Bologna. Aldrovanda vesiculosa has been reported from scattered locations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.
Ligustrum lucidum, the broad-leaf privet, Chinese privetglossy privet, tree privet or wax-leaf privet, is a species of flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae, native to the southern half of China and naturalized in many places. The name "Chinese privet" is also used for Ligustrum sinense.
Ganoderma is a genus of polypore fungi in the family Ganodermataceae that includes about 80 species, many from tropical regions. They have a high genetic diversity and are used in traditional Asian medicines. Ganoderma can be differentiated from other polypores because they have a double-walled basidiospore. They may be called shelf mushrooms or bracket fungi.
Hieracium debile is a forb of genus Hieracium in the family Asteraceae, and was found only in Ecuador, in two separate collections gathered more than a century ago by W. Jameson. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland at altitudes between 3,500 m (11,483 ft) to 4,000 m (13,123 ft) but the exact location is unknown as the label in the collections says only "In summis alpibus Quitensibus".
Hieracium hieronymi is a forb of genus Hieracium in the family Asteraceae. and found only in Ecuador once in a collection gathered in 1871 from Pichincha; the description included with the specimen was "Crescit prope Panecillo haud procul a praedio Hacienda Pesillo inter urben Quito et La Esperanza", and in a more recent specimen reported by L. Mille still some years ago gathered from Carchi and deposited in the Berlin Herbarium where the taxonomic problems have remained intact.
Lacistema lucidum is a species of flowering plant in the family Lacistemataceae. It is a small tree or shrub that is endemic to Brazil, where it is known from five states including Pará and São Paulo. It occurs in Atlantic rain forest habitat, and is an uncommon species.
Zelkova sicula is a species of Zelkova in the family Ulmaceae, endemic to Sicily.
The flora of Italy is all the plant life present in the territory of the Italian Republic. The flora of Italy was traditionally estimated to comprise about 5,500 vascular plant species. However, as of 2019, 7,672 species are recorded in the second edition of the flora of Italy and in its digital archives Digital flora of Italy. In particular, 7,031 are autochthonous and 641 are non native species widely naturalized since more than three decades. Additionally, further 468 exotic species have been recorded as adventitious or naturalized in more recent times.
The Panamanian night monkey or Chocoan night monkey is a species of night monkey formerly considered a subspecies of the gray-bellied night monkey of the family Aotidae. Its range consists of Panama and the Chocó region of Colombia. There are also unconfirmed reports of its occurrence in Costa Rica, especially on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. The species definitely occurs in the Atlantic lowlands of Panama close to the Costa Rica border.
Rhamnus alaternus is a species of flowering plant in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae, known by the common names Italian buckthorn or Mediterranean buckthorn. It is a hardy medium-sized evergreen shrub with fragrant flowers.
Galium lucidum is a species of plants in the Rubiaceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region, from Portugal and Morocco to Greece, the range extending northwards into Germany.
Hieracium naviense is a very rare species of hawkweed which has been given the common name of Derby hawkweed.
Iris marsica is a plant species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus Iris. It is a rhizomatous perennial, from the Apennine Mountains, in Italy. It has glaucous, sickle-shaped or curved, light green leaves, slender stem with 2 branches, and 3 violet, light blue violet, dark violet, and dark purple flowers. It was only found and described since 1973, and is not yet in general cultivation. It was once thought to be a form of Iris germanica, but has different morphological characteristics and different chromosomal differences.
Botanophila fonsecai, also known as Fonseca's seed fly, is a small fly endemic only to an approximately 100m stretch of coastal dune system of North-Eastern Scotland. The fly is named after British entomologist Evelyn d’Assis-Fonseca. It is classified as an endangered species by the IUCN Red List due to its small habitat range and constant threats to these limited environments. The fly is probably the rarest endemic insect species in the UK.
Petrocoptis pseudoviscosa, commonly known as falguera, is a species of plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is endemic to the Spanish province of Huesca, where it is only known from the Valle del Ésera in the Pyrenees. Its natural habitat is calcareous cliffs, crags and caves.
