An illustrated guide of ferns and lycophytes from Carambeí, PR, Brazil Cássio Michelon1

Abstract

We present a list of species of ferns and lycophytes from Carambeí, a municipality located in Paraná state, southern Brazil. This area, locally known as "Campos Gerais", presents an intricate mosaic of forests and savannah with several canyons and humid valleys that harbors a rich and unique vegetation in Southern Brazil. In total, we found 129 species (119 ferns and 10 lycophytes), distributed in 18 families and 59 genera, and 20% (26 spp.) of which are endemic to Brazil. The most expressive families were Polypodiaceae (19 spp.), Pteridaceae (18 spp.) and Thelypteridaceae (15 spp.). The most representative genera were Asplenium (8 spp.-6.2%) and Amauropelta (8 spp-6.2%). Terrestrial herbs, epiphytes and lithophytes are the most common guild of life forms, successively. The richest environments were woody forest (61% of the species) and herbaceous-shrubby (12%). Arachniodes denticulata, Phlegmariurus flexibilis and P. heterocarpon are the second record in the "Campos Gerais" region. We also provide photographic plates with diagnostic characters for most of the species.