Eplingiella sanoi sp. nov. (Hyptidinae-Lamiaceae): supports the urgent need for campos rupestres conservation in the Serra do Espinhaço Septentrional, Minas Gerais state, Brazil

From Firenze University Press Journal: Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography (Webbia)

University of Florence
5 min readOct 22, 2024

Guilherme Medeiros Antar, Centro Universitário Norte do Espírito Santo, Departamento de Ciências Agrárias e Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo

Raymond Mervyn Harley, Royal Botanic Gardens

José Floriano Barêa Pastore, CTBS Herbarium. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Campus Curitibanos

Marcio Verdi, Centro Nacional de Conservação da Flora, Instituto de Pesquisa Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro

Arthur de Souza Soares, Laboratório de Sistemática e Evolução de Plantas, Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido

Eplingiella Harley & J.F.B.Pastore (Lamiaceae, tribe Ocimeae, sub-tribe Hyptidinae) is a genus from Tropical America named in honour of Carl Epling (1894–1968), one of the major specialists in tropical American Lamiaceae, especially Hyptidinae (Harley and Pastore 2012). The genus is characterized as shrubs with fasciculate or much branched stems, bear-ing reduced leaves adapted to xeromorphic climates, which are borne on brachyblasts, short pedunculate and subumbellate cymes subtended by foliaceous bracts and containing 2 to 18 flowers, blue or violet-blue corollas spreading lobes with lips unmarked, and gynoecium without a stylopodium (Harley 2014; Harley et al. 2017). Additionally, Eplingiella is unique within the subtribe in displaying resupinate dimorphy and the style opposing the stamens and not lying alongside them (Harley 2014; Harley et al. 2017).The genus is mainly distributed in the semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil (Harley 2014; Antar et al. 2024) and is represented by three species: Eplingiel-la brightoniae Harley, from the further North portion of Chapada Diamantina region, in the municipalities of Umburanas and Sento Sé, Northern Bahia state; E. cuniloides (Epling) Harley & J.F.B.Pastore, known from a small locality in Morro do Chapéu munici-pality, also in Bahia state; and E. fruticosa (Sa lzm. ex Benth.) Harley & J.F.B.Pastore, with a much wider dis-tribution, occurring in both semi-arid and the coastal restinga areas of Northeastern Brazil, from Bahia to Rio Grande Norte states (Harley 2014; Soares et al. 2019). The latter species, which is the type species of the genus, was firstly described by Bentham (1833) as Hyptis fruticosa Salzm. ex Benth. a member of Hyptis sect. Mesosphaeria Benth., one of the 19 sections that this author divided Hyptis into. With further morpho-logical studies (e.g. Epling 1949; Harley 1988), the spe-cies was withdrawn from H. sect. Mesosphaeria and its taxonomic position remained uncertain, until molecu-lar data revealed the paraphyletic nature of Hyptis s.lat. (Pastore et al. 2011, 2021). Finally, the phylogenetic study of Pastore et al. (2011) led to a new generic clas-sification of Hyptidinae (Harley and Pastore 2012), in which the genus Eplingiella was delimited for E. fruti-cosa and allied species (Harley 2014).The Espinhaço Range is an important centre of plant diversity in eastern Brazil (Giulietti et al. 1997), with a high number of endemic, rare and endangered species (Rapini et al. 2021). Beyond its biological importance, the Espinhaço Range stands out in the geological and geographical context as an extensive watershed, stretch-ing longitudinally for over 1,000 km, from the Jacobina region (Bahia state, northern limit) to the Quadrilátero Ferrífero (Minas Gerais state, southern limit; Derby 1906; Saadi 1995). Based on geology, it can be divided into Chapada Diamantina, Espinhaço Meridional and Espinhaço Septentrional (Saadi 1995; Knauer 2007). His-torically, a significant number of studies on the flora in eastern Brazil has been focussed on the Chapada Dia-mantina (e.g., Harley & Simmons, 1986; Stannard, 1995; Zappi et al. 2003) and, particularly, on the Serra do Espinhaço Meridional (e.g., Giulietti et al. 1987 [includ-ing the Flora da Serra do Cipó Collection]; Zappi et al. 2014). Apart from floristic studies in the Grão Mogol region (Pirani et al. 2003, including the Flora de Grão Mogol Collection), the flora of the Serra do Espinhaço Septentrional is still poorly known (Almeida et al. 2023).The northernmost mountains of Minas Gerais state, situated near the border with the state of Bahia, includ-ing the complex formed by Serra Montevidéu, Pico da Formosa, and Pico do Sucuruiú, are part of the Serra do Espinhaço Septentrional. This region is characterized by an ecotone zone between the Cerrado and the Caatinga domains, including extensive areas of campos rupestres (herbaceous and shrubby vegetation inhabit-ing quartzite and ironstone soils and outcrops in elevations above 900 m asl). It remains floristically underexplored, partly due to its challenging accessibility, despite being designated as a conservation priority area (MMA, 2018). Recent efforts have been made to catalogue the plant diversity in this portion of the Serra do Espinhaço Septentrional, with notable contributions from research-ers at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden Research Institute and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Cor-poration, which made first floristic surveys. Following these initial efforts, the region has caught the atten-tion of other botanical researchers who are now getting involved in cataloguing the local flora. In the past years, a significant number of new species to science have been described (e.g., Cardoso et al. 2022; Almeda & Pacifico, 2023; Pacifico et al. 2023; Silva et al. 2023; Zavatin et al. 2023), and at least six new species are currently under study by taxonomists (Verdi, pers. comm.). To document the local flora and support the creation of a Protected Area, over 50 taxonomists are collaborating on a check-list led by researchers from the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden Research Institute. These studies are expanding floristic knowledge and highlighting an elevated diversity of plants in the campos rupestres of this mountain complex in the Serra do Espinhaço Septentrional.Here, we propose a new species of Eplingiella from the campos rupestres of Minas Gerais, an ecotone zone between the Cerrado and Caatinga domains, expanding the genus distribution and assessing the species’ conser-vation status. Our results contribute to the understand-ing of biodiversity within a botanically poorly explored yet highly threatened region of campos rupestres in Serra do Espinhaço Septentrional. Therefore, this study provides further support for decision-making regarding the adoption of effective conservation strategies in the region.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/jopt-15902

Read Full Text: https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/webbia/article/view/15902

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