Eugen Warming’s Florula Lagoensis revisited: old lessons to new challenges

Abstract

Background and aims – We revisited Florula Lagoensis, the first floristic list of the Cerrado, published in 1892 by Eugen Warming. All flowering plants were nomenclaturally and taxonomically updated and associated with type material collected by him. We also analysed the contribution of new collections made in Lagoa Santa to assess how many species were recollected after his work. Methods – We have used the list of phanerogams in Warming’s 1908 translation as primary data source and we performed a search on Brazilian virtual herbaria to retrieve all material collected at the locality of Lagoa Santa and surroundings. Key results – Out of 2270 species collected by Warming, 560 (24.7%) have been recollected after 150 years, and only 242 species (9.6%) were new additions to the list. A total of 381 (14.4%) specific or infra-specific names from Florula Lagoensis have type specimens collected by Warming. Conclusions – It is fair to recognize Eugen Warming as one of the pioneers of floristic studies in Brazil. We stress the completeness of his work and highlight the importance of following Warming’s footsteps, collecting intensively, exploring different environments, and working in a collaborative way.