Safeguard and protection of Mediterranean sea daffodil (Pancratium maritimum L.): a case of extinction in progress?

Sea daffodil or Pancratium maritimum L. is a plant very beautiful owing to present wonderful white flowers. It, differently from the majority of the other Pancratium species, has a wide geographic range growing in the coastal sands of the Mediterranean, reaching eastward Black Sea and westward the Atlantic coast. Nowadays, Pancratium maritimum or sea daffodil is an enough investigated species and it is very important for the medicine’s future because its bulbs, roots and leaves produce the lycorine. This chemical has very important antiviral and antitumor property. Although the sea daffodil is widely distributed, the excess of flowers sampling, urbanization and tourism put serious threats to this species, resulting in a significant decline in the amount of its population. In fact, its habitat, however, is threatened from human activities (e.g., sunbathing). A notable example is the total disappearance of the species from the island of Ischia (Naples, Southern Italy) because of human impact on the beaches (see references in the Applicant Form). At present, very few and fragmentary studies are available on the threat status of this species as a consequence of anthropogenic habitat disturbance. For this reason, a complete conservation study must be performed in the future for all distribution range of this plant. In fact, owing to the lost of its natural habitats and populations the species is endangered along Mediterranean coasts, but it is not result again under protection by “The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species” (International Union for Conservation of Nature, Red List, http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/search). Aims. Applicant aim is to perform a complete study to preservation and protection about this plant (sea daffodil or Pancratium maritimum), and her goals are: (1) to know the genetic diversity and real distribution of sea daffodil; (2) to define the origin of its geographical distribution; (3) to understand how the human impact is changing the probability of its survival; (4) to understand the colonization and adaptation strategies of this species; (5) to plan more effective conservation programs about sea daffodil. Methods. Applicant would like to perform a complete conservation study about this plant using several approaches: • Genetics, analyzing the sea daffodil populations of its geographic range and using the best molecular markers employed for this purpose (i.e., SSR for nuclear DNA and sequencing plus/or cpSSR for chloroplast DNA). • GIS, to monitor both the Pancratium maritimum populations and the health status of its habitat (i.e. sandy beach). • Eco-Morphology, to analyses its vegetative structures to understand the adaptations which incur sea daffodil compared with other similar species of different habitats.