Private environmental consultancy reveals five genera and ten species of angiosperms new to Rio Grande do Norte state, northeastern Brazil

Abstract

New occurrences of 10 species of angiosperms from Rio Grande do Norte state are reported. These data were collected by an environmental consultancy prior to the establishment of a wind farm. These records demonstrate the presence of knowledge gaps in the Caatinga flora of the state and show how an environmental consultancy can positively contribute towards the documentation of biodiversity in areas prior to their modification by human activities. In particular, at a time when the Brazilian Congress is discussing the elimination of environmental studies for licensing new developments, these new occurrence data highlight the importance of environmental studies.

La tribu Justicieae (Acanthaceae) en la región oriental del Nordeste de Brasil

“…Distribución y datos ecológicos: Endémica de Brasil, ocurre en la Caatinga en Bahia, Pernambuco, Paraíba (Flora de Brasil), Rio Grande do Norte (Moura et al 2018) y Alagoas (Costa-Lima y Chagas 2019) (Fig. 6).…”

“…En el Nordeste de Brasil, las investigaciones en Acanthaceae y en especies de la tribu son puntuales. Los estudios están concentrados principalmente en floras locales y listas florales (Harvey y Wasshausen 1995, Kameyama 2003a, b, Amorim et al 2005, Cardoso y Queiroz 2008, Lyra-Lemos et al 2010, Côrtes y Rapini 2013, Moura et al 2018, descripción de nuevas especies y combinaciones nomenclaturales (Côrtes y Rapini 2010, 2011, Monteiro et al 2018, Silva et al 2019, Alcantara et al 2020) y revisiones taxonómicas de géneros (Costa-Lima y Chagas 2019, 2020. Ante la escasa información y la creciente preocupación por la conservación de la naturaleza, el objetivo de este artículo es ampliar el conocimiento…”

Combretaceae no estado do Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil

“…Coletada com flores e frutos em agosto. Moura et al (2018) citaram sua ocorrência no município de Equador, Rio Grande do Norte. Figs.…”

<strong>Expanding <em>Waltillia</em>: an addition to a previously monotypic genus of Bromeliaceae from the Espinhaço range, Brazil</strong>

“…Such well-documented fieldworks are particularly important, under the current scenario of cuts on the budget allocated to science by the Brazilian government, limiting research on floristic documentation, and consequently hindering the increase in available data in biodiversity databases (Angelo 2016, Fernandes et al 2017, Gibney 2015. Thus, the cooperation between private initiatives and scientists, notably taxonomists, can assist in the process of identifying the collected specimens, revealing new occurrences or even new species for science (Moura et al 2018, Ribeiro et al 2020, Versieux et al 2017.…”