Couto et al. 2021 (Article) Alcantarea, Rocky Outcrops

Alcantarea alegrensis: a New Endemic Species from Espírito Santo State, Brazil, Threatened by Rock Mining

Author(s):—D.R. Couto, V.D.C. Manhã & E.M. Leme

Corresponding email:—dayvidcouto@hotmail.com

Publication:—Journal of the Bromeliad Society 71(1): 27-38. (2021)

Abstract:—The genus Alcantarea (E. Morren ex Mez) Harms (Tillandsioideae), with 41 species (Gouda et al. 2018 [cont. updated]), is endemic to eastern Brazil and its species are prevailingly epilithic or sometimes saxicolous, occurring in different types of rock ecosystems, especially in gneiss-granitic inselbergs in the Atlantic Forest domain and rocky outcrops in the grasslands of Serra do Espinhaço range, in the Cerrado domain (Versieux & Wanderley 2015; Leme et al. 2017). The genus was re-established by Grant (1995) formerly considered a subgenus of Vriesea Lindley (Mez 1894, 1935; Smith 1955; Smith & Downs 1977). The generic status of Alcantarea was later corroborated by morphological studies (Leme 2007; Versieux & Wanderley 2010, 2015; Versieux et al. 2010) and its monophyly is well supported by phylogenetic DNA sequence data, in sister position to the genus Waltillia Leme, Barfuss & Halbritter, with Alcantarea and Waltillia being sister to the clade containing Vriesea s.str. and Stigmatodon Leme, G.K. Brown & Barfuss (Leme et al. 2017), which together form the subtribe Vrieseinae (Barfuss et al. 2016; Leme et al. 2017).

Published names (1):

Alcantarea alegrensis