A família Rubiaceae no Parque Nacional de Boa Nova, Estado da Bahia, Brasil

Abstract

(Rubiaceae in the Parque Nacional de Boa Nova, Bahia State, Brazil). Regarding the number of species, Rubiaceae is the fourth most diverse family among the Angiosperms. It is a cosmopolitan family, concentrated mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. With ca. 13,800 species in 611 genera, the occurrence of the family in Brazil is confirmed by 1,406 species and 126 genera. The Parque Nacional de Boa Nova (PNBN) is located in the Northeast region of the Planalto da Conquista, in the State of Bahia, and encompasses areas of the Atlantic Rainforest, Caatinga, and ecotonal Semideciduous Seasonal Forest, locally known as 'agreste' or 'mata de cipó'. Among the Angiosperms of PNBN, the Rubiaceae stands out as one of the richest families. The main objective of this work was to survey the species of Rubiaceae from the PNBN. Field expeditions were carried out between 2012 and 2017, and the identification was performed using specialized bibliography and comparisons with authoritatively named herbarium collections. The family is represented by 29 genera and 60 species in the PNBN, of which four species are probably new to science. The most representative life-form was shrubby (60.6%), followed by herbaceous (27.9%), liana (4.9%), epiphytic (3.3%), and tree (3.2%). The main characters used for species identification were the habit, stipules morphology, inflorescence type, corolla aestivation, stigma morphology, number of ovules in the ovary, and type of fruit. Considering the results, it can be concluded that the PNBN outstands for its number of Rubiaceae species and the area should be highlighted as very important for plant conservation.