Areas of endemism in the Espinhaço Range in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Phanerogamic flora and vegetation of Itacolomi State Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

“…Even though Trichogonia eupatorioides (=Trichogonia martii) and Trembleya calycina are described as probably extinct in the red list of the state of Minas Gerais (COPAM 1997), there are recent collections of these species in the herbarium databases (CRIA 2016). Other surveys along the Espinhaço Range have shown the same pattern, with many threatened species (Giulietti & Pirani 1988, Pirani et al 1994, Echternacht et al 2011). The campos rupestres show a high concentration of endemic species, some of them occur in small population (Giulietti & Pirani 1988, Echternacht et al 2011).…”

“…Other surveys along the Espinhaço Range have shown the same pattern, with many threatened species (Giulietti & Pirani 1988, Pirani et al 1994, Echternacht et al 2011). The campos rupestres show a high concentration of endemic species, some of them occur in small population (Giulietti & Pirani 1988, Echternacht et al 2011). Thus, they are very vulnerable to extinction.…”

“…Shrubby species occur in both forest and campos rupestres, explaining the higher richness of this habit. In addition, the southern portion of the Espinhaço Range is more strongly influenced by the Atlantic Forest than the central/northern parts, leading to a higher proportion of phanerophytic species in campos rupestres (Echternacht et al 2011). Most of the herbs occur in campos rupestres, mainly from Poaceae and Orchidaceae families.…”

“…Phytogeographically, the campos rupestres are classified into the Cerrado domain (Coutinho 2006, Batalha 2011), a kind of savanna, where plants grow in a wide variety of substrates including rock outcrops of quartzite, sandstone or ironstone, along with sandy, stony and waterlogged grasslands (Silveira et al 2016). Campos rupestres also harbor several endemic and threatened species from different groups of organisms (Echternacht et al 2011, BGF 2015, Silveira et al 2016. Among the 538 threatened plant species of the Minas Gerais State, 358 (66.5 percent) occur in this kind of physiognomy (Costa et al 1998).…”

“…This region is considered to be of extreme biological importance (Costa et al 1998). The QF landscape is a mosaic under the influence of two Brazilian hotspots, Cerrado and Atlantic Forest, giving evidence of the ecotonal character of the region (Echternacht et al 2011). The Atlantic Forest in the QF Region is mainly represented by a seasonal semideciduous type (Morellato & Haddad 2000) and the Cerrado occurs in different phytophysiognomies, including the campos rupestres (Silveira et al 2016).…”