Abstract
This article presents and describes Plantago humboldtiana, an extremely narrow endemic rheophytic new species from a waterfall in Corupá, Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil. The new species is unique in presenting a combination of type-G antrorse trichomes on scapes, pendulous inflorescences and 1-seeded pyxidia. Only one population is known to exist, despite intensive search efforts in nearby, similar environments. Its conservation status is assessed as critically endangered (CR) as the only known population is restricted to a dramatically small area, and is subject to extreme fluctuation due to occasional floods, and also to intense visitation by tourists, which can disturb its fragile habitat. We also present an updated identification key to the species of Plantago that occur in Santa Catarina. The recent description of three narrow endemic, threatened new species of Plantago in Santa Catarina, which is the Brazilian state with its flora best studied, highlights the need for more taxonomic research, especially in the neotropics.
Highlights
The neotropics harbour around 90,000–110,000 species of seed plants, about 37% of the world’s species, and encompass widely known hotspots for conservation priorities (Antonelli & Sanmartín, 2011)
Such work should include field work, thorough revision of herbarium material, and state-of-the-art molecular phylogenetic analyses. This study fills such a knowledge gap by presenting and describing a new, extremely narrow endemic species of Plantago from a waterfall in Corupá municipality, Santa Catarina state (SC), southern Brazil, and includes a detailed description, illustrations, and an updated identification key to the species of Plantago that occur in SC
In an attempt to find any other populations of the new species, we searched on two occasions (January 2015 and February 2016) all the 14 waterfalls of the Novo River, which are all located inside the ‘‘Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural Emílio Fiorentino Battistella’’ particular environmental protection area in Corupá
Summary
The neotropics harbour around 90,000–110,000 species of seed plants, about 37% of the world’s species, and encompass widely known hotspots for conservation priorities (Antonelli & Sanmartín, 2011). How to cite this article Hassemer and Rønsted (2016), Yet another new species from one of the best-studied neotropical areas: Plantago humboldtiana (Plantaginaceae), an extremely narrow endemic new species from a waterfall in southern Brazil.
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