genus Fernseea Baker
Literature references:
Comments:
- by Pereira & Moutinho, Bradea 3(38): 340-343. 1983. nAt the second half of the last century, Baron Heinrich Wawra Ritter Von Fernsee accompanied Prince Maximilian Von Wied-Neuwied and later the Princes August and Ferdinando Von Saxen-Coburg on their travels in Brazil. During both expeditions he had been collecting plants in the states of Rio de Janeiro, E. Santo, Bahia and Pernambuco, being sent all material to Wien. On his last travel he went to the Itatiaia summit where he found a new plant lately described under the name of Bromelia itatiaiae Wawra (1880). This plant was quite different from others from the same genus and that was noticed by Baker who proposed in 1889 a new genus where to put Bromelia itatiaiae, using as differential characters "its inflorescence, bract-like stem-leaves, cupular calyx above the ovary and long much-contorted stigmas", he described the genus Fernseea Baker, named after Baron Wawra Von Fernsee. The holotype of the genus is destroyed but it is well typified by illustrations, Smith (1979).
Henceforth no other plant has been put in this genus, resting monotypical until our present time. The only one plant belonging to this genus was Fernseea itatiatiae (Wawra) Baker, which has a extremely limited geographical distribution. Found only at the Itatiaia summit and close vicinity at the Mantiqueira mountains, one of the highest Brazilian chains of hills, it lives in the rocky clefts of the high altitude grasslands as a saxicolous plant. These grasslands cover the top of the mountains from 1.800-2.200m alt. although with often rains, the grassland flora, which Fernseea itatiaiae takes part, is characterized by drought resistant features since having a dry season, shallow soil, and intense solar radiation due to the altitude. Four species stand out among few others: Cotaderia modesta, Chusquea pinifolia, Cladium ensifolium and Baccharis discolor, and small trees that reach only 2-4 meters
can be found (Roupala impressiuscula, Rapanea gardneriana, Vismia micrantha and Buddleia speciosissima) Rizzini, 1979.
As we go down, the grasslands are gradually surpassed by the rainy forest. These forests have great variety of species with trees reaching 30m alt. covered with epiphytes as Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae. Further down we reach the Paraiba valley, at an altitude between 500-700 msm, where dry forests, almost destroyed nowadays, covers the two banks of the Paraiba river. Going southward the relief climbs up again, now the long chain of hills called "Serra do Mar" (sea mountains) rises up, facing the Itatiaia summit separated by the paraiba valley at one side, and the Atlantic ocean at the other one. This part of the "Serra do Mar" is called "Bocaina" mountains (2.085m alt.). The landscape of these areas is influenced by the wind pattern. Coming from the sea, the hot and humid air passes the shoreline and climbs up the hills. As it rises up its humidity condenses in the cooler air into mist or rain. These are regions of higher atmospheric humidity, with more or less strong precipitations during the whole year, covered with high rainy forests. At the lee side of the Bocaina Mountains the air is dry, without strong rains, and as it crosses the paraiba valley, the air gets moisture, which will be condensed again into mist or rain as it climbs up the "Mantiqueira mountains". Although covered by rainy forests too, the latter mountains are half as humid as the former ones (Husek,1972).
At 1980, during an expedition, Luiz Carlos and Sergio Gurken collected in the forest covering the Bocaina mountains several interesting bromeliads. Among them, one was astonishing different from all others already known, which after had been studied carefully in its floral morphology, was placed at the genus Fernseea.
This plant has its geographical distribution limited to the "Bocaina" mountains, from near the sea level at "Angra dos Reis" (Luiz Correia de Araujo, personal communication) to 1.400 meters high, growing on the trees of the rainy forest. Although not noticed in others regions, probably further collections will show this plant on the vicinity of these mountains, and even at the slopes of the Mantiqueira mountains, just below the F. itatiaiae habitat. The same might happen with this latter species, which could be found in the small grasslands at Bocaina mountains. Nevertheless the two species of the genus Fernseea have quite different habitats. F. itatiaiae grows as a terrestrial plant at the high altitude grasslands, and this new species grows epiphytically in humid and shadowed rainy floreats covering the mountainous slopes, being both distributions tied to the occurence of the respective vegetations at the vicinity of these mountains. —See Smith & Downs 1979
