From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 4, October 2024.
Over the past few months, Smithsonian botanists have discovered, described, and published 11 new plant species, a new plant genus, and established two new plant tribes. These taxa are found in South America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, and they represent unusual and unique additions to our understanding of the world’s flora. Some are threatened with extinction.
In Carvalho-Sobrinho et al. (2024), Laurence Dorr and colleagues describe a new Brazilian tree species, Eriotheca paganuccii (Bombacoideae, Malvaceae). This endangered species is endemic to montane wet forests near granitic-gneissic rock outcrops on summits of mountains in only three different locations in the Atlantic Forest of Bahia.
Dorr also joins colleagues in describing a new species, Ouratea chepelii (Ochnaceae), from the Andean mountains of Venezuela (Niño et al. 2023). The new species is known only from the northern slope of Guaramacal National Park and the park's buffer zone at 1800-2000m.
Ken Wurdack and colleagues describe three new species of Plukenetia (Euphorbiaceae) from Madagascar (Gillespie et al., 2024). The three species, Plukenetia analameranensis, P. antilahimenae, and P. randrianaivoi, are unusual based on morphology, pollen, and molecular data. Based on their results, the authors suggest that the three new species along with P. ankaranensis form a subclade, sister to the other two Malagasy species, P. decidua and P. madagascariensis.
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