Plants and Man in the urban environment: the history of the city of Ferrara (10th - 16th cent. A.D.) through its archaeobotanical records

An overview of the archaeobotanical analyses carried out on material from archaeological sites of the city of Ferrara (Emilia-Romagna; 10th – 16th cent. A.D.), made by the Laboratory of Palynology and Palaeobotany of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia during over 15 years of research, is presented. The floristic list from seed/fruit analyses is reported, and interesting subject matters are tackled concerning both cultivated/cultivable plants (fruits and nuts, vegetables/aromatics/spices/medicinal plants, fibre and oil plants, cereals and pulses, flower and other ornamental plants), and wild plants not obviously used, together with plants of wet grounds, which represent rare and endangered species in the Emilia-Romagna region today.