22nd Meeting of the Group of European Charophytologists (GEC)

Introduction by Angelo Troìa:

“On behalf of the Organising Committee, I am very happy to welcome you to the 22nd Meeting of the Group of European Charophytologists (GEC), held in Palermo, Italy from September 17 to 21, 2018. The 22nd GEC Meeting is convened by the International Research Group on Charophytes (IRGC) and organised by the Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF) of the University of Palermo, in collaboration with the Interdepartmental Research Centre on Technology-Environment Interaction (CIRITA) of the same University, and FORUM PLINIANUM onlus. The lectures and poster presentations will be held at the Botanical Garden, part of the University Museum System. As far as I know, this is the first GEC meeting in Italy, so I am particularly proud of this, but also hopeful that this meeting can contribute to attract more attention from researchers, field biologists and politicians (s. l.) on this particular group of plants: they are in fact so important from several points of view, from evolutionary studies to applied ecology, from palaeontology to physiology”.