New species of Protium sect. Tetragastris from the Andes, the Brazilian Cerrado, and Amazonia. Studies in Neotropical Bu
- PDF / 2,803,261 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 496.063 x 720 pts Page_size
- 39 Downloads / 211 Views
Abstract. Protium acrense, P. cerradicola and P. yanachagae are described and illustrated, and a key to the twelve species of Protium sect. Tetragastris is provided. Recent botanical exploration is revealing that the Andes constitute a minor center of the Burseraceae diversity that has yielded at least one new species in this section (described here). The other two, now that they have been distinguished from P. altissimum, segregate satisfactorily by geography and habitat. Keywords: Biodiversity, montane forests, Neotropics, Peru, taxonomy.
Recent advances in phylogenetic studies of the Burseraceae resulted in a monogeneric tribe Protieae, such that Tetragastris and Crepidospermum are now sections of Protium, and species of Tetragastris and Crepidospermum that did not already have names in Protium were transferred to it (Daly & Fine, 2018). Section Tetragastris is characterized by the absence of pulvinuli on lateral petiolules; secondary vein framework festooned-brochidodromous and freely ending veinlets highly branched; petals connate at least 1/2 their length; in staminate flowers the anthers continuous with the filaments and the disk and pistillode replaced by a conical, parenchymatous “ovariodisk;” cotyledons entire, plano-convex and usually straight; and germination epigeal and phanerocotylar, the first eophylls opposite and simple. The Burseraceae are generally considered a lowland family, particularly in the Neotropics, but over the past several years it has become clear that the Andes comprise a minor center of diversity for the family, with a wealth of unpublished species (e.g., Daly & Martínez-Habibe, 2012). One of them, collected for the first time only in 2002, is described here as Protium yanachagae Daly. Heretofore, the most recent species to be described in the Tetragastris clade was
Protium occhionii Rizzini, in 1974, a species that forms part of the dune vegetation of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Complex. It was long suspected that the name Protium altissimum (Aubl.) Marchand (syn.: Tetragastris altissima (Aubl.) Swart) was being applied to more than one species, and eventually it became clear that it comprised a complex of three species, two of them described here. All are similar vegetatively and notably have inflorescence bracts semiclasping at the base. Close examination revealed characters that clearly distinguish the three except for some specimens with immature fruits (see the key and Table I), but in addition to the morphology, they have distinct geographical distributions and habitat preferences: P. acrense Daly is a species of moist forests in southwestern Amazonia; P. altissimum is rather widespread in moist forests of eastern and central Amazonia and the Guianas; and P. cerradicola Daly is a cerrado vegetation species occurring on the Brazilian Shield in Brazil and Bolivia. A first glance would suggest P. acrense and P. cerradicola are sympatric in Pando, but Prov. Manuripi is a mosaic of cerrado vegetation and moist forest (Michael Nee, pers. comm.), permitting segregation.
Brittonia, X
Data Loading...
