Crocus de Ligurie

The main threats to C. ligusticus are:

• Plant gathering (flowers are sometimes collected for domestic use and rarely for commercial use). Recreational collection of plants has a lower impact than other eye-catching flowers because it is an autumn-flowering species, which blossoms not in the main hiking season. Commercial use is not so common and it is linked to past practices.
• Habitat shifting, mainly due to changes in grassland management, that results in grassland closing.
• Habitat loss and degradation resulting from infrastructure development.

Several locations fall in Natura 2000 sites (SCI) and natural parks. C. ligusticus seeds are conserved in germplasm bank (Laboratory for the conservation of Liguria plant diversity, Hanbury Botanic Gardens, University of Genoa).

Data about the species distribution and its biology are being collected through transboundary projects in progress between Italy and France (the EU Alcotra Programme). It is protected by law at regional level (Italy). In France the species is included in the Livre Rouge de la flore menacée de France (Tome I: Espèces prioritaires) (Olivier et al. 1995) and in the Red List of vascular flora of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (VU B2ab(v)+D2) (Noble et al. 2015). The Red List assessment of the species at the Italian level is in progress.

Required conservation actions include monitoring of population and habitat trends, and the identification of priority areas where active intervention is required to prevent or stem habitat closure.