A threatened new species of Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) from the Brazilian Cerrado revealed by morpho-anatomical analysis

Abstract

A new species of Ipomoea, endemic to the Cerrado domain in Maranhão, Brazil, is described. Ipomoea maranhensis D.Santos & Buril, sp. nov. has been misidentified as I. burchellii Meisn. in several herbaria. Even though both species have oblong, pubescent leaves, they can be distinguished by morpho-anatomical characters. We present a diagnosis, complete description, illustration, taxonomic comments, conservation status and distribution map.

Expansion of the geographic distribution of a Brazilian endemic, Encyclia gonzalezii L.C. Menezes (Orchidaceae, Epidendroideae), to the Cerrado of Maranhão and the Northeast Region of Brazil

“…Recent studies in Maranhão have shown that, with increasing sampling effort, new records of Orchidaceae (Ferreira et al 2017(Ferreira et al , 2019aGomes et al 2021;Oliveira et al 2021;Pessoa et al in press) and other plant families (Ferreira et al , 2019bGuarçoni et al 2020b;Silva Júnior et al 2020) are discoverable. Even new species are found in Maranhão, as attested by Scatigna et al (2019), Guarçoni et al (2020a), andSantos et al (2020).…”

Anatomical features of ecological importance and taxonomic value revealed by scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy in Camonea umbellata (L.) A.R. Simões & Staples (Convolvulaceae)

“…For example, the isobilateral mesophyll was considered a diagnostic trait to differentiate Ipomoea burchellii Choisy from Ipomoea maranhensis D.Santos & Buril (Santos, Arruda, & Buril, 2020), previously considered to be a single species, and the mesophyll is essential to distinguish Evolvulus saxatilis D.Santos and Buril from E. glomeratus Nees & Mart. (Santos, Saraivam, et al, 2020), whose morphological characters also caused them to appear to be the same species. Mesophyll type has also been used to delimit three species of Evolvulus L. (Ketjarun et al, 2016).…”

“…Buril from E. glomeratus Nees & Mart. (Santos, Saraivam, et al, 2020), whose morphological characters also caused them to appear to be the same species. Mesophyll type has also been used to delimit three species of Evolvulus L. (Ketjarun et al, 2016).…”

“…For example, the shape of epidermal cells has taxonomic value in Ipomoea (Madani & Majbour, 2017; Shrestha et al, 2017), peltate glands in Stictocardia Hallier F. (Olaranont et al, 2018) and Argyreia Lour. (Staples et al, 2015; Traiperm et al, 2017), and the shape of the mesophyll and of the petiole vascular bundle was an essential character in the delimitation and description of two new species of Convolvulaceae in Brazil (Santos, Arruda, & Buril, 2020; Santos, Saraivam, et al, 2020).…”

First record of the aquatic plant Echinodorus scaber Rataj (Alismataceae) for the State of Maranhão, Northeastern Brazil

“…(Matias, 2023). This lower number is probably the result of the lack of extensive sampling efforts in Maranhão focusing on aquatic plants, even though the state is known for its great floristic potential, as evidenced by recent descriptions of new taxa (e.g., Guarçoni et al, 2020;Santos et al, 2020;Silva et al, 2023), and new 1994; Lehtonen, 2008) and the descriptive terminology followed Beentje (2010).…”