Database of poorly known endemic plants in the state of Minas Gerais,

Brazil

Nicole Correia de Barros

Heitor Lisboa da Fonseca

Elton John de Lírio

University of São Paulo

nicole.correia104@usp.br

vouchers: Jabot (2023), speciesLink (2023),

Objectives
The objective of this study was to create a
database of Minas Gerais (MG) endemic plant
species that are poorly known and do not have
geographical coordinates in virtual databases.
This database intends to provide information on
the occurrence of these species in the state of
MG, and to contribute to conservation policies
and biogeographical studies.
Materials and Methods
The database was filtered from records in
speciesLink (2023), GBIF (2023) and Flora e
Funga do Brasil (Brazil Flora Group 2023), with
around 250,000 records for MG. From the list of
2,576 species with exclusive occurrence for the
state of MG, according to Flora e Funga do
Brasil, we obtained 794 taxons for investigation
of occurrence.
Information such as collector, collection number
and catalog number was used to search for
information on the occurrence on voucher
records in physical and virtual herbariums, as
well as scientific literature, original works and
type materials. The Flora e Funga do Brasil
(Brazil Flora Group 2023) was also used to
confirm relevant data in the search. The
following databases were used to search for
JSTOR (2023) and GBIF (2023). If the
necessary information was not found or there
was dubious information, specialists were
contacted. In addition, the bibliography for the
original work was obtained from Trópicos
(2023), using the oldest basionym as a
reference.
In species where the coordinate of origin was
not available, a centroid referring to the
municipality was used. This data was obtained
from the IBGE municipal grid using the QGIS
centroid function. The acronyms of the
herbariums were obtained from Index
Herbariorum. In relation to the level of risk of
extinction, the categories used come from the
IUCN (2023). However, the assessment was
made using CNCflora (2023).
Results
The search resulted, preliminarily, in 684
species distributed in 79 families. The
Eriocaulaceae family had the largest number of
species, accounting for 26% of the total, with
178 spp. This was followed by Orchidaceae
with 8.9% (58 spp.), Fabaceae (49 spp.),
Bromeliaceae (39 spp.), Velloziaceae (34 spp.),
Asteraceae (33 spp.), Melastomataceae (30
spp.), Malvaceae (24 spp.) and Cactaceae (18
spp.). The other families had less than 18
species.
In relation to the risk of extinction, it was
observed that 588 species were not rated (NE),
43 were categorized with insufficient data (DD),
and 53 are under some level of threat: 24 as
critically endangered (CR), 25 as endangered
(EN) and 4 as vulnerable (VU).
The records analyzed were collected by 181
collectors, with A. A. Silveira being responsible
for the largest number of collections, with 106,
followed by A. F. M. Glaziou (44), C. F. P. von
Martius (31), A. Saint-Hilaire (30) and L. Riedel
(30). The oldest collection was made in 1821
and the most recent in 2020. Finally, it was
noted that approximately 58 species did not
have a location at municipal level.
Partial Conclusions
The Eriocaulaceae family presented a
considerable scarcity of location data compared
to the other families, which highlights the need
for a study to map it.
Regarding the risk of extinction, it is
hypothesized that the assessments may not
have been made because of the absence of
information on the species, which makes
categorization difficult or impossible. The lack of
extinction risk assessments of most of the
species analyzed reinforces the risk that these
populations are subjected to, and how essential
it is to demarcate their occurrences, so that
classification can be made and conservation
plans can be implemented.
The absense of information on the municipal
location of some species reinforces the
importance of a more detailed study of their
place of occurrence, so that a more specific
survey of floristic richness can be conducted.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank researcher Renato
Ramos for collaborating on the species data. To
the researchers from the Vale Institute of
Technology, Maurício Watanabe and Cecilio
Caldeira for their support in coordinating the
project. Also, to the specialists who helped with
information on species: Paulo T. Sano, Cássio
Van den Berg, Valquíria Dutra, Guilherme
Antar, Maria A. D. de Souza, Luiz M. Neto,
José R. Pirani, Matheus Colli-Silva, Lilian
Eggers, José Baumgratz, Jomar Jardim,
Ricardo Pacifico, Rafael F. de Almeida, Livia
Echternacht, Flávio F. do Carmo, Marcos
Sobral, Mario Gomes, Ricardo de S. Secco,
Sue Zmarzty, Karin Geenen, Patrícia da Rosa,
George Azevedo, Vanessa Rivera, Viviane Y.
Jono, Peter Sack, Lúcio Leoni, Brazilian Journal
of Biology Team, Jimi N. Nakajima, Danielle de
O. Diniz, Roxali Bijmoer, Diego R. Gonzaga,
Gustavo Heiden, Rodolfo de C. Pimentel,
Viviane Y. Jono, Rafaela C. Forzza, Luciano
Denardi and Carolina Siniscalchi.
References
Brazil Flora Group (2023). Brazilian Flora 2020
project - Projeto Flora do Brasil 2020. Instituto
de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de
Janeiro.
Jabot-JBRJ (2023) Instituto de Pesquisas
Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro. Jabot -
Banco de Dados da Flora Brasileira. URL:
http://www.jbrj.gov.br/jabot.
GBIF.org (2023). GBIF Home Page. URL:
https://www.gbif.org.
speciesLink (2023) speciesLink network. URL:
specieslink.net/search.
JSTOR (2023) JSTOR Global Plants. URL:
https://plants.jstor.org/.
Tropicos.org (2023). Missouri Botanical
Garden. URL: https://tropicos.org.
CNCflora (2023). Núcleo Lista Vermelha. URL:
http://cncflora.jbrj.gov.br/portal/pt-
br/projetos/lista-vermelha. Accessed in 25
maio. 2023.
IUCN (2023). The IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species. URL: https://www.iucnredlist.org.
Accessed in 25 maio. 2023.