Three new species of Besleria (Gesneriaceae) from the southeastern Brazilian Atlantic rainforest

Abstract

Besleria is a Neotropical genus of terrestrial herbs, shrubs and small trees growing in the understory of rainforests, with more than 160 recognized species, and is one of the larger and more diverse genera of Gesneriaceae. It belongs to the monophyletic tribe Beslerieae, and recent phylogenetic studies indicate that the genus is monophyletic. During field expeditions in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, we collected specimens that could not be identified as any described species. After morphological analysis and comparison with related species, we assigned these specimens to three new species of Besleria. In this paper, we describe and illustrate Besleria aurea, B. brevicalyx and B. diabolica and provide data on their ecology, distribution and conservation status.

Vascular epiphytes of the Serra do Relógio: the surprising richness of the seasonal forests in the mountains of Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil

“…It is further worth mentioning that several new species were found in this region in the last two decades (Sommer & Ferrucci 2004;Lobão et al 2006;Sobral & Couto 2006;Fraga & Aymard 2007;Sobral et al 2012), with new distribution records (Menini Neto et al 2004;Almeida et al 2005;Matozinhos & Konno 2008;Versieux & Wendt 2006), and rare species for Minas Gerais state (Forzza et al 2014), also harboring Besleria brevicalyx G.E.Ferreira & Chautems (Gesneriaceae) (Ferreira et al 2016), endemic to the SR. Considering that 80% of the Atlantic Forest remnants have less than 50 ha (Ribeiro et al 2009), fragments having this extension can be considered rare and deserve attention.…”

A new species of Besleria (Gesneriaceae) from the Serranía El Pinche (Cauca), southwestern Colombia

“…Biogeographic analyses of the family suggest that it diversified in the Andes 15 Mya ( Perret et al 2013 ; Roalson and Roberts 2016 ). Besleria is one of the largest and least known genera among the New World Gesneriaceae ; it occurs in most Neotropical rainforests with the highest diversity in the tropical Andes (>100 species), followed by Central America (20 species) ( Skog and Boggan 2007 ; Ferreira et al 2016 ). Colombia is the country with the highest diversity of Besleria , with more than 80 species ( Cortés 2013 ), followed by Peru with 35 ( Kvist et al 2005 ), Ecuador with about 20 ( Skog and Kvist 1997 ) and Panama with 15 ( Skog 1978 ).…”

A new species of Besleria (Gesneriaceae) from the western Amazon rainforest

“…Besleria comprises 160 to 200 species of terrestrial herbs, shrubs, and small trees that grow in the understory of rainforests (Berger et al, 2015;Ferreira et al, 2016). The genus occurs throughout the Neotropics, from the West Indies and Mexico to Andean and Amazonian Bolivia and the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest (Skog & Feuillet, 2008;Berger et al, 2015).…”

“…The genus occurs throughout the Neotropics, from the West Indies and Mexico to Andean and Amazonian Bolivia and the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest (Skog & Feuillet, 2008;Berger et al, 2015). In Brazil, the genus is distributed disjunctly between the Amazonian and Atlantic rainforests (BFG, 2015;Araújo et al 2016;Ferreira et al, 2016). In total, 21 species have been documented in the country.…”