Abstract
An updated inventory of the Bromeliaceae for Costa Rica is presented including citations of representative specimens for each species. The family comprises 18 genera and 198 species in Costa Rica, 32 species being endemic to the country. Additional 36 species are endemic to Costa Rica and Panama. Only 4 of the 8 bromeliad subfamilies occur in Costa Rica, with a strong predominance of Tillandsioideae (7 genera/150 spp.; 75.7% of all bromeliad species in Costa Rica). 124 species (62.6%) grow exclusively epiphytic, additional 59 spp. (29.8%) are facultative epiphytes. The most diverse genus is Werauhia, with 59 species (29.8% of the Costa Rican bromeliad flora), followed by Tillandsia with 40 species (20.2%) and Guzmania with 28 spp. (8.6%).
Highlights
Costa Rica is part of the hotspots of plant diversity in the Neotropics (Myers et al 2000) with an estimated 8,249 vascular plant species (Hammel et al 2004)
Based on the extensive revision of herbarium collections from Costa Rica, we present an updated checklist of Bromeliaceae for the country, and provide a brief analysis of systematic diversity, levels of endemism, distribution and life-form spectrum
In particular the revision of the diversity of Bromeliaceae of Panama (Cáceres González et al 2011b) required the reassessment of endemicity of Costa Rican bromeliads. This led to considerable changes in the number of endemic bromeliad species recognized for Costa Rica
Summary
Costa Rica is part of the hotspots of plant diversity in the Neotropics (Myers et al 2000) with an estimated 8,249 vascular plant species (Hammel et al 2004). Based on the extensive revision of herbarium collections from Costa Rica, we present an updated checklist of Bromeliaceae for the country, and provide a brief analysis of systematic diversity, levels of endemism, distribution and life-form spectrum (epiphytic/terrestrial/saxicolous). In particular the revision of the diversity of Bromeliaceae of Panama (Cáceres González et al 2011b) required the reassessment of endemicity of Costa Rican bromeliads.
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