Abstract Detail

Botanical History

Silveira , Fernanda Schmidt [1], Miotto, Silvia Teresinha Sfoggia  [2].

Sellow contributions to Mimosa genus in South America.

Although plant collecting is one aspect of the discovery process that has been much written about, especially concerning the role of the great botanical explorers, data about Sellow collections are scarce including distribution data of species collected by him. The Mimosa genus seems to be a good proxy of Sellow’s contribution in South America owing to its high species richness and endemism. Furthermore, Mimosa is the third genus in number of endemic species in Brazil, the largest country in territorial extension of South America. Regarding this, our goals were: (1) to compare Sellow’s contribution to Mimosa knowledge in Brazil in regard to other collectors; (2) to estimate the number of new Mimosa taxa described for South America that Sellow had collected the Type. Furthermore, we determined among these taxa the percentage of endemic and threatened species, discussing the implications of a lack of precise geographic data. Lastly, we showed a case study of Mimosa collected by Sellow without distribution data, solving it. Our data pointed out Sellow to be one of the ten biggest collectors of new Mimosa taxa in Brazil. From Sellow’s collections, 64 new taxa of Mimosa genus were described, being 55% of the taxa endemic to Brazil. Concerning data about conservation status, just 36% of Sellow taxa have been evaluated according to IUCN criteria, with most of them exclusive to South of South America (66%). Although Sellow’s contributions to description of Mimosa diversity in South America is a priceless legacy, we found some problems with the geographic data provided, which is most often inaccurate. This was exactly the case for M. lasiocephala and M. diffusa. However, from the taxonomic revision of Mimosa diversity in South Brazil, their occurrence was ascertained, showing the relevance of taxonomic studies to obtaining basic data as distribution and the relevance of this data to evaluation of conservation status.

1 - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto de Biociências, Botânica, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501-970, BRAZIL
2 - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto de Biociências, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501-970, BRAZIL

Keywords:
 Plant collectors
 Sellow collections
Mimosa diversity
South America.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 33, Botanical History
Location: 104/Mayo Civic Center
Date: Tuesday, July 24th, 2018
Time: 4:00 PM
Number: 33BH003
Abstract ID:530
Candidate for Awards:Emanuel D. Rudolph Award