Uribbe et al. 2015 (Conference Paper) Vriesea

Morphological variation in Vriesea procera (Mart. ex Schult. & Schult. f.) Wittm. (Bromeliaceae, Tillandsioideae)

Author(s):—F. Uribbe P., S.S.A. Jacques, B. Neves & A. Costa in Benko-Iseppon, A.M.; Alves, M. & Louzada, R. (2015) An overview and abstracts of the First World Congress on Bromeliaceae Evolution. Rodriguésia 66(2): A1-A66.

Publication:— (2015).

Abstract:—The Bromeliaceae family, with 3,352 species in 58 genera, is essentially Neotropical and has in the Atlantic ForestDomain one of its main centers of endemism and diversity. One of the major problems in the systematics of thefamily is the difficulty of circumscription of species, especially in the most diverse genera. Vriesea is the richest genus of the family in the Atlantic Domain and includes numerous species complexes. The species of V. proceracomplex present geographical distribution along the South American coast between Venezuela and southern Brazilin forest formations and ?restingas?, and share the same basic pattern in vegetative structure and morphology of theinflorescence. However, a great variation in dimensions, positions and shape of leaves and flowers and number andposition of the branches of the inflorescence can be observed. Morphometric analyses are commonly used in botanicalfamilies whose circumscription of species is difficult, even in Bromeliaceae. In this context, this work aimed to showthe morphology of taxa related to V. procera via morphometric study of natural populations along the Brazilian coast;establish the limits of variation and the validity of the taxa; perform a taxonomic treatment of the species, describingthem morphologically, providing means to identify them by keys and illustrations and data on geographical distribution. Fourteen natural populations were analyzed along the southern coast from BA to PR states. Two hundred andseventy one individuals and 36 quantitative variables were analyzed. For the statistical analysis the STATISTICA 8.0and v PAST software, version 2.04, were used. The Kruskal Wallis test and discriminant analysis were performed.Seven species were recognized, including four new and two new synonyms and a new combination were proposed.The resulting taxa are distinct because they have differences in the sizes of the inflorescences and leaves, but mainlyin floral characteristics such as length of floral bracts, sepals, petals, stamens and pistil, in addition to the posture ofthe petals and relative position of the stamens during anthesis.

Keywords:—Taxonomy; Morphometry; Morphology.