Plant community, conservation and ecology of a wild species useful to humans but at risk of extinction in Italy: Lagoecia cuminoides L.

Abstract Lagoecia cuminoides L. is a minute plant of the Apiaceae family, extremely threatened in Italy, and of potential use for human consumption. Its ability to colonize territories with complex climatic and soil conditions allows it to be used in organic farms located in rural or marginal areas. For these reasons, its ecology, conservation, and plant communities were studied by multivariate analysis (agglomerative hierarchical clustering using the Flexible-β algorithm with the Bray-Curtis di