Vegetation mapping in Italy

A brief history of the vegetation mapping in Italy is described. The principal types of maps are physiognomical, of vegetation belts, of vegetation series, phytosociological, of dynamical tendencies in vegetation, ecological, of potential vegetation and environmental. The first botanical map of whole Italy was made by Fiori in 1908 and it is of physiognomical type. The last one was realized by Pedrotti in 1989 and represents the natural potential vegetation (in 1:1 500 000 scale).This report was oral presented at the V^th International Congress of Ecology (August 23–30, 1990 - Yokohama, Japan).