Category: Phytokeys

The small genus is found exclusively in the recently recognized Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests biome.

A new species of the Brazil-endemic small genus Mcvaughia is described as part of a extended revision of this unique group. The study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

Mcvaughia is a genus of the plant family Malpighiaceae comprising just three known species, all of which endemic to the unique Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests biome found in the Atlantic Forest and Caatinga domains in northeastern Brazil.

In fact, Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests have only been recognized as a worldwide biome recently and taxonomic studies focusing on its endemic plant species are imperative for conservation management.

In their newly published monograph, the team of scientists from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México & Smithsonian answer the need for a deeper understanding on this unique biome, starting with genus Mcvaughia and hoping to continue with other endemic plant groups in the future.

“We are truly fascinated by the members of this new and exciting biome and when during a visit in Brazilian herbaria, we found a third species of Mcvaughia endemic to seasonally dry forests from the state of Piauí, Brazil, we couldn’t miss the chance to improve knowledge on this unique genus and the biome where it is only found,” explains lead author, Dr Rafael F. Almeida from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The name of the newly described species Mcvaughia piauhiensis pays tribute to Dr. Rogers McVaugh, an American botanist, expert in the Mexican flora.

“The results presented in this study are the second step towards a complete taxonomic revision of the Mcvaughioid clade using several additional methods in biosystematics. The macro and micromorphological data presented here are promising for future taxonomic and phylogenetic studies focusing on understanding the morphological evolution in the Mcvaughioid clade, and in Malpighiaceae, as well,” conclude the authors.

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Original Source:

Almeida RF, Guesdon IR, Pace MR, Meira RMS (2019) Taxonomic revision of McvaughiaW.R.Anderson (Malpighiaceae): notes on vegetative and reproductive anatomy and the description of a new species. PhytoKeys 117: 45-72. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.117.32207

Armed with long thorns and sticky stems, newly described plant Solanum kollastrummight look like a villain by plant standards, but a closer look on this curious new species will reveal its star-like nature in the context of its ecosystem.

Recently described in open access journal PhytoKeys, this newly discovered tomato relative boasts stems densely armed with prickles of up to 17 mm long and to 2.3 mm wide at the base.

In fact, the new species is baptised after yet another showy defence mechanism. The name kollastrum comes from the Greek words for glue and star, referring to the peculiar sticky hairs that end in a star-like formation.

While all this heavy armour might at first fool you that this new species lives in isolation, a closer look has revealed that, contrary to the expectations, S. kollastrum starts as the good guy in its ecosystem.

Field observations of the new species have suggested that it’s preferred by medium- to large-sized bees with buzzing behaviour. The fruit structure of S. kollastrum, with fruits hanging outside its foliage on long axes, along with the numerous relatively small seeds and the release of a mild sweetish scent, suggest that fruits eaten by bats.

The heavy armour is, in fact, not that unusual in the group of ‘spiny solanums’ to which the new species belongs. With approximately 110 species of spiny solanums, the Brazilian Solanum flora is exceedingly diverse.

In its own right, Solanum is an extremely diverse plant genus to which important crops such as potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants belong.

Endemic to eastern Brazil, the known records of the armed new species are mostly concentrated along the Mucuri River watershed, where it inhabits edge of small forest fragments. In fact, the species is especially seen in areas at the base or on the peculiar and gigantic geological formations known as inselbergs or ‘sugar loaves’). Some populations were also found in disturbed sites near these rock outcrops, such as borders of unpaved roads and pastures.

“The discovery of S. kollastrum, a robust and conspicuous plant growing at the roadsides in regions close to large urban centres, highlights how insufficiently known the Brazilian flora is,” explain authors from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, Brazil.

“This highlights how urgent the need is to describe, study and conserve the country’s plant diversity. Thus, we hope that this discovery encourages the study on the most diverse aspects of this species’ biology.”

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Original Source:

Gouvêa YF, Giacomin LL, Stehmann JR (2018) A sticky and heavily armed new species of Solanum (Solanum subg. Leptostemonum, Solanaceae) from eastern Brazil. PhytoKeys 111: 103-118. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.111.28595

 

Common sight along road sides in south Cameroon and western Gabon, and growing in hard-to-be-missed dense colonies, it remains a mystery how this locally useful new palm species Raphia zamiana (locally known as “Zam”) has been missed by botanists until now, with its first collection dating to 2012. The overlooked giant has been recently described in the open access journal PhytoKeys, alongside a shy and rare endemic from the same genus.

Curiously, it might have been exactly the large size of Raphia zamiana that has discouraged botanists from collecting and cataloguing this species, according to the multinational team of researchers from the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, National Herbarium of Gabon, Gabon, the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques – Ville de Genève, Switzerland, the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, IRD, France.

While this theory might sound strange at first, it is plausible, given that a single leaf of this large palm can reach up to 21 meters long and forms dense colonies in swampy areas. Large leaves are not uncommon among the representatives of, what is known as the most diverse genus of African palms, Raphia, with one species, R. regalis, having leaves up to 25 meters, a record in the plant kingdom!

Newly described and named to science, this species is, just like many other representatives of the genus, well-known and heavily used across its range. Uses, of what is locally known as “Zam” include: timber, locally referred to as “bamboo”, used for construction, and fruits – for consumption and medicine. Finally, Zam is also used for wine tapping in certain parts.

“It is indeed incredible that such a large and useful palm has remained unknown to science until now,” comments author Thomas Couvreur, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, IRD, France.

“This curious fact, however, underlines a bigger problem. While biodiversity is being destroyed at unprecedented rates, we still have a lot to discover and describe, even species that are common, well known and useful. This comes as a surprise to many people and underlines how much remains to be discovered in the tropics. Scientifically describing species, especially useful ones, is very important, as it “puts then on the map”, which allows them to be studied and managed. In this sense, field work remains key.”, concludes Thomas Couvreur.

The need to further study and conserve this group of palms is evidenced by a second newly described species in the same PhytoKeys paper. Named after its country of origin, Raphia gabonica, is restricted to only two small populations from central Gabon, where it occurs on hillsides and along small rivers.

Right upon description, R. gabonica is already threatened by extinction. It was assigned a preliminary IUCN status of “Endangered”, because it is found in small unprotected pockets of forest along roadsides. It is now amongst the five most threatened palm species for the whole of Africa.

“Our study shows that, despite their economic and cultural importance across tropical Africa and for Africans, we still know too little about Raphia palms. This is very paradoxal and a gap that we need to fill, quickly” adds University of Yaoundé PhD student Suzanne K Mogue.

“We hope that our amazing discoveries continue to stimulate further botanical studies and promote conservation efforts across Cameroon, Gabon and central Africa in general,” concludes Professor Bonaventure Sonké of the University of Yaoundé.

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For more information on Raphia‘s in Cameroon and Gabon, please see this documentary produced by Joseph Fumtim and Thomas L.P. Couvreur, 28 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avSoLIusCCs&t=6s

Original Source:

Mogue Kamga S, Niangadouma R, Stauffer FW, Sonké B, Couvreur TLP (2018) Two new species of Raphia (Palmae/Arecaceae) from Cameroon and Gabon. PhytoKeys 111: 17-30. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.111.27175

Pensoft’s flagship botanical title PhytoKeys, celebrates its 100th issue and we couldn’t resist to look back on all the exciting plant species that made international media titles and touched audience hearts around the world.

With amazing 4 new species (find them in our press release) making it to the top 10 new species chart by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science’s International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE), PhytoKeys surely has a lot to offer when it comes to communicating plant science to the world.

So let’s go straight to facts with our celebratory selection of 5 famous species (among many others).

The Twitter-sourced Heuchera alba

While hunting for the Pennsylvania state-endangered golden corydalis on steep 350-foot cliffs for a new episode of his YouTube video series, “Plants are Cool, Too!” in the heat of summer 2017, Bucknell University Professor Chris Martine and team stumbled across some interesting specimens of the enigmatic coral-bell genus Heuchera. Posting an image of this find on Twitter, little did  they know that one casual Tweet of a bumblebee on what he thought was Heuchera americana would not only stir a heated discussion among fellow botanists, but also lead to the unexpected-for-this-region record of the rare and globally imperiled Appalachian endemic Heuchera alba.

Read more in the original press release.

Schuette S, Folk RA, Cantley JT, Martine CT (2018) The hidden Heuchera: How science Twitter uncovered a globally imperiled species in Pennsylvania, USA. PhytoKeys 96: 87-97. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.96.23667

Telipogon diabolicus: orchid or demon?

A lone and unique population of about 30 reddish to dark violet-maroon orchids grows on the small patch of land between the borders of two Colombian departments. However, its extremely small habitat is far from the only striking thing about the new species. A closer look at its flowers’ heart reveals what appears to be a devil’s head. The new orchid was named Telipogon diabolicus after its demonic pattern.

Find out more about this species here.

Kolanowska M, Szlachetko DL, Trejo RM (2016) Telipogon diabolicus (Orchidaceae, Oncidiinae), a new species from southern Colombia. PhytoKeys 65: 113-124. doi: http://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.65.8674

Solanum ossicruentum: the bush tomato with bleeding fruit

A class of 150 US 7th graders has helped select a name for a newly discovered plant, which amazes with its fruits that appear to be bleeding once they are cut open. Based on this, the plant will now be known as Solanum ossicruentum, best translated to Australian as blood bone tomato, with “ossi” meaning “bone” and “cruentum” meaning “bloody”.

Luckily for Solanum ossicruentum, attention and protection are not too much of an issue. Find out why.

Martine CT, Cantley JT, Frawley ES, Butler AR, Jordon-Thaden IE (2016) New functionally dioecious bush tomato from northwestern Australia, Solanum ossicruentum, may utilize “trample burr” dispersal. PhytoKeys 63: 19-29. doi: http://doi.org.10.3897/phytokeys.63.7743

Sirdavidia solannona: the rare plant with a famous name

A new genus and species of flowering plant from the custard apple family, Annonaceae, has been discovered in the jungles of Gabon by French and Gabonese botanists. With its unusual flower structure characterised by red petals contrasting with its bright yellow loosely arranged stamens, the flowers of this newly discovered small tree did not quite fit any of the previously described genera. The extraordinary genus was named Sirdavidia, after Sir David Attenborough to honour his influence on the life and careers of the scientists who discovered it.

Find out more in the press release.

Couvreur TLP, Niangadouma R, Sonké B, Sauquet H (2015) Sirdavidia, an extraordinary new genus of Annonaceae from Gabon. PhytoKeys 46: 1-19. doi: http://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.46.8937

Polyceratocarpus askhambryan-iringae: a tree with a good cause

A University of York conservationist who put out a call for schools to name a new species of tropical tree from Tanzania. Following competitive fundraising totalling nearly £4000, Askham Bryan College, UK pipped the Iringa International School, Tanzania to the post. Kindly agreeing to share the name with the the African school in second place, the winning college has now baptised the new species Polyceratocarpus askhambryan-iringae.

Find out more about the tree and its cause here.

Marshall AR, Couvreur TLP, Summers AL, Deere NJ, Luke WRQ, Ndangalasi HJ, Sparrow S, Johnson DM (2016) A new species in the tree genus Polyceratocarpus (Annonaceae) from the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania. PhytoKeys 63: 63-76. doi: http://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.63.6262

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Read more in the journal’s progress in our press release or in the 100th issue Editorial:

Kress WJ, Knapp S, Stoev P, Penev L (2018) PhytoKeys at 100: progress in sustainability, innovation, and speed to enhance publication in plant systematics. PhytoKeys 100: 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.100.27591

What happens when researchers and social media combine forces in the name of science? A rare wildflower from the US and a team of Twitter-savvy botanists tell us a tale of symbiosis between science and modern technology.

While hunting for the Pennsylvania state-endangered golden corydalis on steep 350-foot cliffs for a new episode of his YouTube video series, “Plants are Cool, Too!” in the heat of summer 2017, Bucknell University Professor Chris Martine and team stumbled across some interesting specimens of the enigmatic coral-bell genus Heuchera.

Posting an image of this find on Twitter, little did Martine (@MartineBotany) know that one casual Tweet of a bumblebee on what he thought was Heuchera americana would not only stir a heated discussion among fellow botanists, but also lead to the unexpected-for-this-region record of the rare and globally imperiled Appalachian endemic Heuchera alba.

The first to recognize the rare species on the tweeted image was Ryan Folk (@ry_folk), Florida Museum of Natural History. Surprised by this record, possibly the first for Pennsylvania, Martine tagged his fellow twitter-savvy botanist and plant conservation specialist with the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Scott Schuette (@mossman2000). The continuing discussion revealed that a another possible state record of H. alba was recently posted by Schuette himself on citizen science biodiversity observations tool iNaturalist.org.

After examining specimens they collected while rappelling along the cliffs, the team turned to historical collections held at the Wayne E. Manning Herbarium (BUPL) at Bucknell Universityto further science-proof their Twitter-fueled discovery. What they learned was that local botanists had been misidentifying this species for over a century.

Armed with new data on the habitat preferences of H. alba, the researchers discovered seven more populations of the rare plant that represent a significant range expansion for a species previously known only from small populations in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. The new observations and inferences, along with tips for how others might also locate and protect more populations of H. alba, is now published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

The Twitter identification of this species in Pennsylvania is an exciting outcome that provides a model for the sorts of strides we can make when botanists embrace a combination of modern and classical approaches to discovery and collaboration.

“Importantly, this discovery is not just a cool showcase for how science and modern communications outlets can work together, it also gave us key information on the status of H. alba that can guide future conservation efforts,” says Martine on the scientific value of this discovery.

Martine features Schuette and study co-author Jason Cantley, of San Francisco State University, in the latest episode of “Plants are Cool, Too!”, where viewers can learn more about the steep cliffs inhabited by H. alba and the efforts of local volunteers to preserve them.

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Original Source:

Schuette S, Folk RA, Cantley JT, Martine CT (2018) The hidden Heuchera: How science Twitter uncovered a globally imperiled species in Pennsylvania, USA. PhytoKeys 96: 87-97. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.96.23667

A new special issue in PhytoKeys features a total of 18 new species from across 7 plant families

Covering only 3 % of Earth’s total land area, four overlapping biodiversity hotspots in South East China – Indo-Burma, Philippines, Sundaland and Wallacea – are estimated to be the home of the astonishing 20 to 25 % of higher plant species in the area. While offering an insight into this extraordinary flora, a new special issue published in the open access journal PhytoKeys, contributes to the total count with eighteen new species from the region.

Entitled “Plant diversity in Southeast Asia” the special issue hosts twelve articles devoted to the cause of promoting awareness of the biodiversity richness of the region, while raising concerns on its conservation.

“With this collective effort we showcase taxonomic discoveries as a route to bridging the gap between what we currently know and what is actually out there in terms of biological diversity,”explains special issue editor and contributing author Prof Xiao-Hua Jin, Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute (SEABRI), Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Understanding biodiversity is increasingly crucial for its conservation and towards achieving sustainable development in the shadow of climate change and the growth of economy and population.”

In their big venture, Dr Jin and his co-editors and authors were financially supported the Chinese Academy of Sciences through the SEABRI Institute, a venture established in 2014 with the specific task to help understanding and conserving the biodiversity in Southeast Asia.

Due to its notable botanical diversity Southeast Asia has long been an area of interest for biological surveys and scientific research. Despite the extensive effort to date, however, the species richness of the region remains by far underestimated. In fact, many species might become extinct before we even know that they existed in Southeast Asia.

“Although it will be an unquestionably daunting task, it is extremely urgent to investigate, understand and conserve our biota,” explains Prof Xiao-Hua Jin.

Within the twelve articles hosted in the new special issue, readers may learn more about: two new species of Oreocharis (Gesneriaceae) and a new species of Didymocarpus (Gesneriaceae) from Vietnam, a new species of Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae), a new species of Dendrobium (Orchidaceae), a new species of Gastrodia (Orchidaceae), a new species of Hedychium (Zingiberaceae) and two new species of Trivalvaria (Annonaceae) from Northern Myanmar, a new species of Primulina (Gesneriaceae) from southwest China and seven species of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from Northern Vietnam and Southern China.

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Original Source:

Jin X-H, Tan Y-H, Quan R-C (2018) Taxonomic discoveries bridging the gap between our knowledge and biodiversity. In: Jin X-H, Shui Y-M, Tan Y-H, Kang M (Eds) Plant diversity in Southeast Asia. PhytoKeys 94: 1-2. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.94.23887

Find the full special issue here: https://phytokeys.pensoft.net/issue/1229/

The grass genus Diplachne only includes two species, but it the does not fall short when it comes to remarkable features. It was precisely this affinity to the unusual displayed by the nearly worldwide genus that inspired Dr Neil Snow and his co-authors to delve deeper in a dedicated monograph published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

Occuring widely on all continents except Antarctica, Diplachne fusca, one of the two known species, is by far not just another grass species, with two of its four subspecies displaying high salt tolerance.

Even more intriguing is the discovery of a German research team from the 1980s, which discovered that some populations from southern Asia harbor a nitrogen-fixing bacterial species, which when described was new to science.

“The combination of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and high levels of salinity tolerance is unknown in others grasses, at least that I am aware of”, explains Snow.

“The high tolerance for growing in saline soils suggests the plants may have untapped potential for the reclamation of salinized agricultural soils, which is more and more problematic for some producers.”

In significant contrast, the second species Diplachne gigantea is restricted to small pockets in Africa. Having been collected only a few times and not since the early 1980s, the enigmatic plant is an emergent species, meaning its roots are in the water but upper portions typically extend well above the surface.

“I spent two long and hot days in a boat in the Okavango Delta in Botswana in 1996 looking for this elusive plant, but regrettably without success”, comments Snow on his attempt to encounter Diplachne gigantea in its natural surroundings. “Given the widespread potential habitat in the Okavango, it seems odd the species is collected so infrequently, but it may well be that it is quite rare”.

Snow’s colleagues at the Smithsonian Insitution, Drs. Paul Peterson and Konstantin Romaschenko , included a molecular phylogenetic analysis of 21 individuals of Diplachne, which indicated that while the genus is monophyletic, some accessions of the four subspecies of D. fusca are in fact polyphyletic.

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Original Source:

Snow N, Peterson PM, Romaschenko K, Simon BK (2018) Monograph of Diplachne (Poaceae, Chloridoideae, Cynodonteae). PhytoKeys 93: 1-102. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.93.21079

While untangling the complex taxonomy of Neotropical liana genus Pachyptera, scientists Ms. Jéssica Nayara Carvalho Francisco and Dr. Lúcia Garcez Lohmann from the University of São Paulo used integrative taxonomy to help them recognize five well-defined species, one of which newly described from Colombia and Venezuela. The monograph study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

How do you separate one species from another? Having remained a major challenge in biology as a whole, species delimitation becomes a rather daunting task when it comes to tropical plant groups, where insights on biology, morphology and distribution are often scarce.

For Francisco and Lohmann it took three field expeditions to different states of the Brazilian Amazon, combined with deep morphological and molecular studies, to set straight uncertainties in the complex taxonomic history of Pachyptera lianas.

“We used an integrative approach, which means we combined data from different sources to further understand the taxonomy, evolutionary history and biogeography of Amazonian lianas,” explains Ms. Jéssica Francisco. “We also used different analytical approaches to clearly delimit species and further understand their origin, evolution and diversification history,” she says.

For the authors, the results from this multi-approach effort amounted to recognizing five well-delimited species in the genus, while also describing a previously undiscovered species.

“Pachyptera linearis was discovered thanks to existing materials from herbarium collections, emphasizing the value of collections for the identification of new species. The molecular dataset was also essential to confirm this discovery”, says Ms. Jéssica Francisco.

“Lianas are important members of tropical forests, constituting ca. 25% of their species diversity and contributing up to 40% of leaf productivity. Accurate species recognition and enhanced scientific understanding of species diversity is critical for accurately establishing conservation priorities,” says Dr. Lúcia Lohmann.

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Original source:

Francisco, JNC., Lohmann LG (2018) Taxonomic revision of Pachyptera (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae). PhytoKeys 92: 89-131. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.92.20987

Known for their biodiversity richness, the Caribbean Islands are now adding two new species of bird-catcher trees to their list of botanical treasures. Commonly referred to as bird-catcher trees, the species whose ripe fruits are sticky and can be glued to birds, are from the four-o’clock family (Nyctaginaceae) and only found in Puerto Rico.

Baptised Pisonia horneae and Pisonia roqueae by authors Marcos A. Caraballo-Ortiz, doctoral candidate at The Pennsylvania State University, US and Jorge C. Trejo-Torres, researcher at The Institute for Regional Conservation in Florida, US, the two unusual trees were named to honor the unrecognised work of two extraordinary self-driven women who devoted decades on educational projects in botany. The research was published in the open access journal Phytokeys.

“Finding large organisms new to science from a relatively small and well-studied island seems implausible, but this recent naming of the two large trees from Puerto Rico proves that explorations in nature and museums can still produce exciting novelties.” explains Trejo-Torres.

The two new trees belong to an extraordinary genus (Pisonia), containing rare plants mainly known for the ability to tangle birds with their sticky fruits, which inspired the common name “bird-catcher” used in the Pacific region. Characteristic for the two new trees are also swollen trunks that wrap over the rocks resembling an elephant foot with toes.

“Birds are the main dispersal agents for Pisonia trees, carrying the sticky fruits glued to their feathers to distant islands. However, sometimes these fruits can trap too tightly and even kills birds, as seen in documentaries.” remarks lead author, Caraballo-Ortiz. “So far, we do not know of cases where birds have been trapped by the sticky fruits of the new species, but future studies will explore this possibility”

One of the trees, Pisonia horneae, is dedicated to Frances W. Horne (1873-1967), an American illustrator who spent 45 years painting 750 watercolors of plants from Puerto Rico, of which only a small fraction were published. The other tree, Pisonia roqueae, was named after Dr. Ana Roqué de Duprey (1853-1933), a Puerto Rican educator, writer, and suffragist. As an amateur ethnobotanist, she spent over three decades to prepare a manuscript aimed to make botany accessible to the general public, which was never published.

“It only seemed natural to name the two new species after these two extraordinary women who spent decades on large educational projects aimed to divulge botanical knowledge in Puerto Rico.” explains Trejo-Torres. “Just like the two large trees remained unrecognised by science until now, the enormous efforts of these two women, who dedicated part of their lives to botanical work, remained largely unrecognised by the community.”

“The scientific relevance of naming these trees is that they thrive in the Puerto Rican forests, including the Luquillo Mountains, which are among the most well studied areas in the world. World-scattered ecologists and conservationists actively working on Puerto Rican forests and plants now have a nice and surprising update to make in their databases.” concluded Caraballo-Ortiz.

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Original source:

Caraballo-Ortiz MA, Trejo-Torres JC (2017) Two new endemic tree species from Puerto Rico: Pisonia horneae and Pisonia roqueae (Nyctaginaceae). PhytoKeys 86: 97-115. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.86.11249

Additional Information:

Funding organisations include the United States Department of Agriculture-Forest Service-International Institute of Tropical Forestry, The Institute for Regional Conservation, and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.