The ornamental plant industry in Italy must open up up to new production horizons in guild to meet the challenge of international competitiveness . Thanks to scientific research , some mintage native to Australia and South Africa could be cultivated and marketed in Italy and in the countries of the Mediterranean basin , demonstrating greater adaptability to climate change , thanks to their resistance to drought , and an added economic value linked to the edibleness of their fruits and their richness in bioactive compounds .
The first results of the NATIVASA project ' explore edible NATIVe Australian and South African plant coinage for Mediterranean decorative manufacture ' , financed by the Ministry of University with funds from the European Union in the model of the Next Generation EU , were presented at the second National Conference on Horticulture and Floriculture devise in Padua by the Italian Society of Horticulture , in support of the interior inquiry system PRIN2022 , coordinate by Antonio Ferrante , a former full professor at the University of Milan and now full professor of Horticulture and Floriculture at theInstitute of Plant Production of the Sant’Anna School , in collaboration with Anna Mensuali , associate prof at the same institute and scientific head of the labor for the Sant’Anna School .
The Orthophloriculture group of the Institute of Plant Production , represent by the two professors and Annalisa Meucci , a doctoral student at the School , presented at the conference the lines of research and initial result on some of the young edible decorative species - whose fruit are edible - originating in South Africa and Australia , as merchandise invention in the national floriculture sphere .
Two inquiry projects were introduce at the conference as part of this project : ' Identification of Australian and South African species for introduction into the ornamental plant production sector ' and ' Reproduction and vegetative propagation of Australian aboriginal species for the NATIVASA project ' . The project , which will be carry out in collaboration with FLORA TOSCANA , an important reality of the interior floriculture sector , and with some professors of the Department of Agricultural , Food and Agri - Environmental Sciences of the University of Pisa , aims precisely at exploring non - traditional , under - ill-used and unexplored Australian and South African native plant species which show greater drought allowance , and lower nutritionary requirements , that may be worthy for establishment in the Mediterranean decorative industry for reduce the input of water resources during product and to provide the Italian nursery industry with new profitable time value - added crops with more sustainable characteristic .
seed : santannapisa.it
