Volume 11 NOVONNumber 12001New Combinations and New Names in Some Brazilian Microlicieae (Melastomataceae), with Notes on the Delimitation of Lavoisiera, Microlicia, and Trembleya Frank Almeda Department of Botany, California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California 94118-4599, U.S.A.
[email protected] Angela B. Martins Departamento de Botanica, IB, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Caixa Postal 6109, 13083-970 Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
[email protected] Consideration of generic limits in thelargely Brazilian tribe Microlicieae has resulted inan emended circumscription of the genus Lavoisi-era to include those species with a capsule thatdehisces longitudinally from the base to the apex,and an ovary that is always partly inferior with apersistent columella and laterally flattened lamel-liform placental intrusions. An ongoing re-evalua-tion of Lavoisiera necessitates the transfer of sevenspecies to Microlicia and one species to Trembleya.Six new combinations are proposed (Microlicia cer-ifera, M. mucugensis, M. noblickii, M. ordinata, M.vernicosa, and Trembleya elegans), and two newnames are provided (Microlicia giuliettiana and M.longipedicellata) for epithets already pre-empted inthe genus to which they are being transferred. Ge-neric limits in Microlicia and Trembleya are alsodiscussed, together with distributional notes and di-agnostic characters for the species here transferredto these genera. Key words: Brazil, Lavoisiera, Melastomata-ceae, Microlicia, Microlicieae, Trembleya. The Microlicieae, with over 250 species, is thelargest tribe of capsular-fruited Melastomataceaewith a distribution centered in Brazil. Previousclassifications of the family have attributed between11 and 15 genera to this tribe (Cogniaux, 1891;Renner, 1993), which has traditionally been de-fined by its terete capsules, unadorned ovary apex,prolonged anther connectives, rostrate anther the-cae, and oblong or reniform seeds with a predom-inantly foveolate testa. We are currently preparing a monograph of La-voisiera DC., a genus of the Microlicieae with some76 validly published species that is essentially re-stricted to campo rupestre habitats in central Bra-zil. Campo rupestre is a species-rich formation ofinterdigitating vegetation types dictated by slope,aspect, and drainage that is dominated by quartziticoutcrops with sandy or gravelly soils that are nu-trient-poor (Giulietti et al., 1987; Giulietti & Pirani,1997; Stannard, 1995). The imprecise circumscription of genera in theMicrolicieae has long been recognized (Baillon,1877; Baumgratz et al., 1996; Hooker, 1867), yetno studies have attempted to evaluate intergenericrelationships within the tribe. To better understandthe relationships and systematic position of Lavo-isiera, we have conducted a comprehensive char-acter analysis of all genera attributed to the Mi-crolicieae in the past. Although our work is still inprogress, our phylogenetic analyses using morpho-logical characters show that Lavoisiera is consis-tently part of a clade that includes ChaetostomaDC., Microlicia D. Don, Rhynchanthera DC., Sten-NOVON 11: 1-7. 2001.
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