Article

The area known as 'Cilento' is located in southern Italy, south of Salerno, on the west (Tyrrhenian) coast of the peninsula. Knowledge of its flora has always been very scanty. A review on the available knowledge from the first studi es by Tenore (about 1810-1840) up to the year 2000 has shown how the information has changed during two centuries and what can be its future developments. ln particular, it is worth mentioning that at the time when Tenore published his researches, the number of vascular plant species Iisted for the Cilento was 444, whereas Lacaita, in a catalogue published in 1921 , recorded for this area 934 different species. To date the number of spontaneous (or naturalized) vascular plant species mentioned for the Cilento is 1940, with the assumption that this figure is going to increase in the near future following the floristic research presently carri ed out in the area.However, it is remarkable how 91 species among those mentioned by Tenore have no longer been found since 1850; it is reasonable to think that many of these are actually vanished, since typical of areas (such as sandy coastal dunes, humid areas) heavily modified by the human impact during the past 100 years.The study of the Cilento flora deserves, with no doubt, an adequate investigation, since this area, because of its typical geographical position and its litological and geomorphological variety, served as a hinge in the diffusion of species between the north and the south of ltaly, and between Italy and the Balcan peninsula.