Taxonomy of Fernseea : a Brazilian endemic and endangered genus of Bromeliaceae
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bstract. Fernseea is an endemic Atlantic rainforest genus of Bromeliaceae comprising only two species: the endangered Fernseea itatiaiae and the critically endangered Fernseea bocainensis. A taxonomic overview of Fernseea is provided, including complete morphological and leaf anatomy descriptions of its taxa and comments on their taxonomy, biogeography, and conservation status, along with a key to facilitate the identification of the two species of Fernseea. A neotype for F. itatiaiae is designated, and a new form, F. bocainensis forma brevifolia, which cooccurs with the typical form, is described based on its distinctive vegetative morphology. Keywords: Early divergent Bromelioideae, systematics, neotypification, Itatiaia National park, Serra da Bocaina National Park, Atlantic rainforest, Brazil.
Very small genera, those composing only one or two species, are relatively common in Bromeliaceae. Of the 76 genera validly published and accepted by bromeliad taxonomists, 17 (ca. 20%) comprise only one or two species (Gouda et al., 2019). The increasing number of small Bromeliaceae genera is the result of an effort to define monophyletic lineages based on published phylogenetic analyses and associated systematic re-circumscriptions (Barfuss et al., 2016). Fernseea Baker is a long-recognized genus that was first described by Baker (1889) to include Fernseea itatiaiae (Wawra) Baker. It was named to honor Heinrich Wawra Ritter von Fernsee, the Baron of Fernsee and author of Bromelia itatiaiae Wawra, the basionym of F. itatiaiae (Baker 1889). The genus remained monospecific for slightly more than a century until Fernseea bocainensis E. Pereira & Moutinho was described (Pereira & Moutinho, 1983). Morphological similarities between Bromelia L. and Fernseea are very evident, and both are components of a nonmonophyletic group comprising the first two lineages to diverge within Bromelioideae (Schulte et al., 2009). The first phylogeny that included Bromelia and both species of Fernseea (making it therefore possible to ascertain the monophyly of the latter genus) placed the two species as a single
natural lineage (Monteiro et al. 2015). That phylogeny was based on macro- and micromorphological characters and demonstrated structural similarities between them. When molecular characters are used, Fernseea is recovered as a monophyletic lineage sister to the genus Disteganthus (Monteiro, 2015. Regarding the biogeography of Fernseea, both species are restricted to the Atlantic Forests of the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo (Martinelli et al., 2008); their specific epithets refer to collection sites in the Serra do Itatiaia and Serra da Bocaina mountains that are part of the Serra do Mar Range in southeastern Brazil. Although endemic to those regions, the species are not sympatric and occupy dissimilar habitats (forest vs. “campos de altitude”; CNC Flora, 2012; Flora do Brasil, 2020, continuously updated). In an effort to formally review the taxonomy of Fernseea and considering the most recent phylogeny
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