Two new species and one new nothospecies of Tacinga from semi-arid Eastern Brazil are described. The new taxa were discovered on the basis of material collected during field trips carried out by staff of the Cactarium Guimarães Duque of the Instituto Nacional do Semiárido. A morphologic comparison of all the Tacinga species currently known, together with the cytogenetic analysis of the new taxa, are made. Full descriptions, illustrations, taxonomic discussions for all three new taxa are given as well as an identification key for all known Tacinga species. IUCN categories for the new taxa were assessed, resulting as endangered or critically endangered, due to their small population size and restricted distribution.

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Nearly 1/3 of all cacti species in the world are at risk of extinction because of human impacts. In Brazil, Cactaceae is among the 10 most endangered families of national flora, making conservation measures essential for this family. In this paper, we document the species preserved in the ex situ collection at the Guimarães Duque Cactarium (CAGD) located in the National Institute of Semiarid, Paraíba state, Brazil. The collection consists of 158 species and 1013 specimens, including mostly Cactaceae and succulent representatives of eight other botanical families. The cacti collection covers 952 specimens belonging to 123 species and 36 genera. Of this total, 104 species are native to Brazil and 19 are exotic species from nine countries. The CAGD collection includes representatives from several phytogeographic domains of the country, highlighting endemic and threatened cacti species occurring in the Caatinga. 70% (N = 83) of the cacti species recorded in the Brazilian Semiarid region are represented in the CAGD collection. Furthermore, in the collection, there are cacti species classified with different threat categories (Near threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically endangered), with 21 species classified according to MMA/2014 list and 35 species according to

A família Cactaceae está distribuída principalmente nas Américas, apresentam uma grande importância econômica, fornecendo recursos energéticos para animais polinizadores e dispersores, podendo ser utilizadas na alimentação animal e humana, possui um grande potencial na medicina tradicional e no paisagismo. O objetivo do presente estudo foi selecionar indicadores e padronizar reações de PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) para analisar ISSR (Inter Simple Sequence Repeats) em estudos de variabilidade genética de Cactaceae. Foram testados 14 indicadores de ISSR com temperatura variando de 48° a 52°C, em espécies de Tacinga, e destes, 8 foram selecionados por serem polimórficos: ISSR-808, ISSR-827, ISSR-842, ISSR-845, ISSR-853, ISSR-857 ISSR-880 e ISSR-888. O número médio de sequências amplificadas por indicador foi de 11,5 bandas, com destaque para o indicador ISSR-827, que produziu 15 bandas, enquanto os indicadores ISSR-845 e ISSR-853 produziram apenas 8 bandas. Os 8 indicadores selecionados no presente estudo possibilitaram a diferenciação genética, sendo eficientes e indicando um bom nível de polimorfismo entre as espécies analisadas, dessa forma, poderão ser utilizados em futuros trabalhos para estimar a divergência genética em nível molecular em espécies da família Cactaceae.

A taxonomic treatment of Tibouchina s.l. from Bahia, Brazil, is presented. Thirty-seven species are recognized, one of them in Pleroma (P. michelangelii). Four species are new records for Northeast Brazil (T. crassiramis, T. elegans, T. granulosa and T. sebastianopolitana), 25 are endemic to the state and nine restricted to the Chapada Diamantina. The treatment includes an identification key, descriptions, illustrations, comments, and distribution maps of the species in the state.

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We clarified the identity and nomenclature of Pterolepis parnassiifolia. A new combination, Pterolepis piatensis, is also proposed to recognize at species level the previously described P. parnassiifolia var. piatensis. We included full morphological descriptions, photographs, drawings, and discussions on the taxonomy, distribution and conservation of both species. We also included a table of main morphological characters separating P. parnassiifolia from P. piatensis.