New blueberry and mortiño relatives (Ericaceae) from northwestern Colombia

Abstract

The inventory of the vascular plants of one of the richest and least studied floras, the Andean and Chocó regions of northwestern Colombia, targets Las Orquídeas National Park. As a result of field trips to areas never before collected, several epiphytic and small terrestrial shrubs in the family Ericaceae have been discovered in the Park's humid forests. Five new, morphologically remarkable species of Ericaceae (tribe Vaccinieae), are here described and illustrated. In a separate phylogenetic analysis, Psammisia pinnata Pedraza, P. pseudoverticillata Pedraza, Satyria orquidiensis Pedraza, and S. pterocalyx Pedraza, were placed by molecular sequence data within clades of the non-monophyletic genera Psammisia and Satyria; phylogenetic evidence for the placement of P. sophiae Pedraza is still lacking. Their affinities are here discussed, along with their preliminary conservation status.