Contribution to the syntaxonomic knowledge of the Quercus ilex L. woods of the Central European Mediterranean basin.

We present here a contribution towards a new syntaxonomic definition of the holm oak woods present in the Central European Mediterranean Basin, within which the territories of the Italian peninsula play a connecting role between the Tyrrhenian area to the west and the Adriatic to the east, including the biogeographic territories of the Italian-Tyrrhenian, the Apennino-Balkan and the Adriatic Provinces. This analysis was conducted starting from a phytosociological table comprising 151 surveys, some of which are unpublished, of the holm oak woods present in Italian (excluding Sardinia) and Croatian territories. Consideration of these surveys has allowed the definition of two main ecological groups of holm oak woods, of which one is thermophilous and the other mesophilous. Thirteen associations have been defined, of which three are newly described. These associations are attributed to the new alliance Fraxino orni-Quercion ilicis, here proposed. The syntaxonomic scheme of the communities under study is presented at the end of this report.