A família Melastomataceae na flora aquática e palustre do Recôncavo da Bahia, Brasil

Abstract

Aquatic plants or palustris are those capable of resisting permanent or periodic submersion of the whole plant, or part of it, thus occupying humid environments. Melastomataceae has a cosmopolitan distribution, including ca. 170 genera and 5,000 species. In Brazil it is represented by 68 genera and 1,416 species, running in all phytogeographical domains. Despite the wide distribution in the State of Bahia, there are few taxonomic studies with emphasis in this family regarding the occurrence of species in the aquatic and palustrine flora. Thus, the objective of this work was to carry out a taxonomic treatment of the species of Melastomataceae occurring in aquatic environments. Collections were carried out over the period from 2010 to 2019, covering the entire region of the "Recôncavo da Bahia basin". The material was deposited in the Bahia Recôncavo Herbarium (HURB). Six species were found, belonging to six genera, being Miconia crenata (Vahl) Michelang., Desmocelis villosa (Aubl.) Naudin, Marcetia taxifolia (A. St.-Hil.) DC., Pterolepis glomerata (Rottb.) Miq., Rhynchanthera dichotoma (Desr.) DC., And Tibouchina lhotzkyana (C.Presl) Cogn. Descriptions and comments, identification key, map of distribution and illustration of diagnostic characters are presented. This work represents a contribution to the knowledge of the aquatic and palustrine flora of the "Recôncavo da Bahia basin".