A generic synopsis of Malpighiaceae in the Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Malpighiaceae is one of the major families of tropical and subtropical lianas, easily recognized in the field due to its remarkable flower conservatism. The family has been the subject of different phylogenetic studies over the past fifteen years, which have demonstrated the paraphyly of its subfamilies, most of its tribes, and some of its largest genera. Some of the most drastic changes have occurred in Mascagnia and Tetrapterys, where ten genera were segregated (eight of them new) making it difficult for general botanists to reassign many commonly known species. As a first attempt to clarify most of the recent generic changes within the family, we present a taxonomic synopsis of Malpighiaceae from the Atlantic Forest in Brazil and Argentina, including an illustrated key, morphological generic descriptions, an updated checklist of species for each genera, and figures of all genera found in this biome.

Taxonomic revision of Amorimia W.R. Anderson (Malpighiaceae)

“…Stipules -All species of Amorimia show interpetiolar stipules (figure 6b), instead of epipetiolar stipules as stated by Almeida et al (2016a). In fact, the stipules might move during inflorescence development and end up placed at the base of leaves associated to the inflorescence and/or bracts (figure 6a).…”

“…Amorimia W.R. Anderson is a small genus of Neotropical lianas, comprising 15 species distributed throughout Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (SDTF) and Rainforests in South America, ranging from Northern Colombia to Southern Brazil and Argentina (Anderson 2006, BFG 2015, Almeida et al 2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b. The genus is monophyletic and currently placed in a basal grade in the Malpighioid clade (sensu Almeida et al 2017b), alongside Ectopopterys W.R. Anderson, Mascagnia (Bertero ex DC.)…”

Leaf and stem micromorphology of Byrsonima sericea DC. by light and scanning electron microscopy

“…lancifolia (Araújo et al, ), principally in terms of the numbers of (or absence of) accessory vascular bundles. Those characters constitute solid parameters for differentiation at the family, genus, and species levels, as was pointed out by Almeida, Francener, and Amorim (), who used them to differentiate Malpighiaceae genera.…”

Sinopse de Malpighiaceae no Estado do Espírito Santo, Brasil: Stigmaphyllon A. Juss.

“…Stigmaphyllon, com 48 espécies (Almeida & Amorim 2014e 2015, BFG 2015 ocorrendo principalmente ao longo de corpos d'água nas florestas Amazônica e Atlântica (Almeida et al 2016, Anderson 1997, BFG 2015. Deste total, 31 espécies são registradas para a Floresta Atlântica, das quais 24 são endêmicas a este domínio , Almeida et al 2016, BFG 2015. Uma descrição para Malpighiaceae e chave de identificação para gêneros ocorrendo na Floresta Atlântica é apresentada por Almeida et al (2016).…”

“…Deste total, 31 espécies são registradas para a Floresta Atlântica, das quais 24 são endêmicas a este domínio , Almeida et al 2016, BFG 2015. Uma descrição para Malpighiaceae e chave de identificação para gêneros ocorrendo na Floresta Atlântica é apresentada por Almeida et al (2016).…”