Seed banking of taxa of conservation interest in the Gargano National Park. – Ex situ conservation in seed bank is considered to be essential for the safeguard of plants, especially in case they are in danger of extinction. The Project “Vivaio della biodiversità garganica” was implemented in cooperation between the Gargano National Park and the Botanic Garden Museum of the University of Bari. It was aimed at the study and the conservation of the germplasm of some taxa which are of conservation interest in the Gargano and in the Tremiti Islands. Some of the 21 collected taxa are strictly endemic to the National Park (Aubrieta columnae Guss. subsp. italica (Boiss.) Mattf., Campanula garganica Ten. subsp. garganica, Centaurea diomedea Gasp., Iris bicapitata Colas. and Viola merxmuelleri Erben) while others have a high biogeographical value (such as the amphi-Adriatic taxa Aurinia leucadea (Guss.) K. Koch subsp. scopulorum (Ginzb.) Plazibat, Aurinia sinuata (L.) Griseb., Inula verbascifolia (Willd.) Hausskn. subsp. verbascifolia, Laserpitium siler L. subsp. garganicum (Ten.) Arcang. and Lomelosia crenata (Cirillo) Greuter & Burdet subsp. dallaportae (Boiss.) Greuter & Burdet).

preliminary information is reported on the historical Herbarium collected in the second part of the XiX century by the apulian botanist Giuseppe De Nicolò. the Herbarium consists of about 6,000 specimens, and witnesses an active collaboration between De Nicolò and the major botanists of his time, including Gussone, Pedicino, and Gasparrini.