Thirteen new records of ferns from Brazil

Thais Almeida; Alexandre Salino

doi:10.3897/BDJ.3.e4421

Biodiversity Data Journal : Taxonomic paper

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Taxonomic paper

Thirteen new records of ferns from Brazil

Thais Elias Almeida^‡, Alexandre Salino^§

‡ Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, Santarém, Brazil

§ Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Corresponding author:

Academic editor: Daniele Cicuzza

Received: 28 Dec 2014 | Accepted: 19 Feb 2015 | Published: 25 Feb 2015

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Almeida T, Salino A (2015) Thirteen new records of ferns from Brazil. Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e4421. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.3.e4421

Abstract

Thirteen fern species are reported for the first time for Brazil. Among the new records, eight are from Acre state (Cyathea subincisa, Cyclodium trianae, Elaphoglossum stenophyllum, Hypoderris brauniana, Pleopeltis stolzei, Thelypteris arcana, Thelypteris comosa, Thelypteris valdepilosa), two are from Pará state (Polypodium flagellare, Tectaria heracleifolia), one from Minas Gerais state (Alsophila salvinii), one from Ceará state (Campyloneurum costatum) and one from Bahia state (Thelypteris rolandii). Part of the species shows a disjunct occurrence or illustrates floristic relations between Brazilian and Andean Mountains or Central American Mountains.

Keywords

Pteridophyta, floristic, disjunction, Amazon region, Andes.

Introduction

Brazil figures as one of the most diverse countries in the world and harbors distinctive ecosystems such as Atlantic Forest, Cerrado and Amazonia (Veloso et al. 1991). The indigenous flora has been studied since the 18^th century, with thousands of species described and documented through the years. Notwithstanding, the country is still far from consolidating its botanical knowledge (Sobral and Stehmann 2009) and collection efforts are still necessary to generate data on species distribution, and provide basis for studies on centers of endemism and richness, patterns of geographic distribution and accurate information on species threat level (Sobral and Stehmann 2009).

As a result of working effort of several taxonomists, exactly 150 years after the publication of Flora Brasiliensis’ first volume, Forzza et al. (2010) published a list of Brazilians’ known plant species, an attempt that represented an initial step in gathering information and trying to answer the question of how diverse Brazilian flora is. This checklist is also available online (http://reflora.jbrj.gov.br/jabot/listaBrasil/ConsultaPublicaUC/ConsultaPublicaUC.do) and is periodically updated to include taxa and taxonomic novelties.

Although this publication represented a remarkable starting point, it also depicted a wide range of problems, such as lacking of studies (Salino and Almeida 2008a) and sampling for several taxonomic groups, as well as those regarding taxonomic issues (Salino and Almeida 2008a, Prado and Sylvestre 2010). Additionally, the list highlighted the lack of knowledge and the insufficient and often biased sampling efforts performed in Brazil (Forzza et al. 2010, Prado and Sylvestre 2010).

As an example of the lack of an adequate sampling, the works of Nelson et al. (1990) and Hopkins (2007) showed how biased and fragmentary are collections in brazilian Amazon. The results presented by Hopkins (2007) indicate large areas of missing information where uncollected and even undescribed species probably lies, and are therefore the ones where additional collection efforts will mostly likely bring up novelties. Although occurrence of new records for brazilian Amazon are normally expected due to the lack of studies performed in this portion of the country (Forzza et al. 2010), finding new records in Southeastern Brazil is somewhat surprising as it holds some of the largest and most traditional plant research centers in the country (Sobral and Stehmann 2009). In this context, it is clear that even easily accessible areas close to major research centers may be still far from an ideal sampling, making it harder to precisely define geographic distribution of many taxa.

The few states that have so far published lists and pteridophyte floras are Acre (Prado and Moran 2009), Santa Catarina (Gasper et al. 2012) and São Paulo states (Prado and Hirai 2011). Despite of these recent sampling efforts, new records and species have been constantly discovered in these and other states, as a result of increasing collection efforts in unexplored or poorly surveyed areas (Lopes et al. 2003, Pietrobom and Barros 2003, Pietrobom et al. 2004, Barros et al. 2005, Pereira et al. 2005, Costa et al. 2006, Labiak and Prado 2007, Biral and Lombardi 2012, Biral and Prado 2012, Carvalho et al. 2012, Góes-Neto and Pietrobom 2012, Dittrich and Souza 2013).

Ferns present a peculiar geographic distribution, as they have light-weighted wind-dispersed spores that can easily cross barriers (Tryon 1986, Moran 2008). These plants normally present wide ocurrence ranges and disjunct populations (Tryon 1972, Page 1979a, Kessler 2010) - species can have populations separated by more than 500 miles (Tryon 1972); environmental conditions seems to be intimately associated with habitat circumscription to most ferns and lycophytes species (Page 1979a). Although they are known to occur in a wide variety of habitats, tropical regions hold higher species richness than temperate ones: Southeastern Asia and Tropical America, for example, account for ca. 60% of fern species (Moran 2008). This richness, however, is unevenly distributed: middle-elevation mountains (800-2000 m) hold the richest ferns communities and the largest number of endemic species (Page 1979b, Moran 2008). As an example, primary centers for Neotropical ferns, as defined by Tryon (1972) (areas with higher species number and higher endemism), correspond to the main mountain ranges in Tropical America: Mexico, Andes, and Eastern Brazil. This geographic distribution unevenness is usually explained by the greater environmental heterogeneity present in mountainous regions (Moran 2008, Kessler 2010).

The aim of this paper is to present 13 species previously unknown to occur in Brazil.

Materials and methods

Taxonomic identifications were based on specific literature or comparisons with material previously determined by experts. In a few cases duplicates were sent to experts for confirmation. Voucher material is deposited in BHCB herbarium from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. Abbreviation of authors’ names was based on IPNI (www.ipni.org). Previously known distribution of taxa was compiled from literature, especially floras and taxonomic treatments. For each new record we provide examined material, comments about previously known distribution and taxonomic notes.

Taxon treatments

Alsophila salvinii Hook. 1866

IPNI urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:17018560-1

Nomenclature

Cyatheaceae

Alsophila salvinii Hook., Syn. Fil. 36. 1866. Type: Guatemala, Salvin & Godman s.n. (K). Figs 1, 2.

Figure 1.

Alsophila salvinii Hook. (Cyatheaceae). Habit.

Figure 2.

Alsophila salvinii Hook. (Cyatheaceae). Detail of aphlebiae at petiole base.

Materials Download as CSV

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Distribution

Previously known distribution: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru (Moran 1995c, Smith et al. 2005). Fig. 3.

Figure 3.

Distribution map of Alsophila salvinii, showing previously known distribution (shaded countries) and new record (star).

Ecology

Occurs as terrestrial in a fragment of Atlantic Rainforest.

Taxon discussion

This species can be recognized by petioles without conspicuous spines and with several pairs of aphlebiae toward the petiole bases (Moran 1995c, Conant 1983). Fig. 2.