Plantago guilleminiana Decaisne (1852: 722–723)

Hassemer, Gustavo, 2017, Reestablishment of Plantago bradei (Plantaginaceae), an overlooked narrowly endemic species from Serra do Caparaó, eastern Brazil, and range extension of P. guilleminiana, Phytotaxa 296 (3), pp. 253-264 : 259-261

Plantago guilleminiana Decaisne (1852: 722–723)

Lectotype (designated by Rahn 1974: 113):— BRAZIL. “Brésil méridional. S. Paul”, February 1839, J. B. A. Guillemin 379 (P-00609829– image!).

Etymology: —The name honours the French botanist Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemin (1796–1842), who collected the type of this species.

Illustrations and photographs: — Fig. 3B ; Fig. 54 in Rahn (1974); Fig. 3K in Hassemer et al. 2014; Fig. 5B in Hassemer (2016).

Distribution and habitat: —High-elevation grasslands in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil, at elevations higher than 750 m in Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and São Paulo states, and higher than 1100 m in Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro states. Despite the fact that I could not find any collections of P. guilleminiana from Espírito Santo state, I believe that this species may occur there, because I have collected specimens of this species about 20 m away from the border between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo in Serra do Caparaó, which extends through both states and is mostly (about two thirds) located within Espírito Santo.

Conservation status: —Least concern (LC) (Hassemer et al. 2016).

Notes: —Here, I report the first records of the occurrence of this Brazilian endemic species in Serra do Caparaó, representing a distribution extension of about 170 km from the nearest known populations, in Ouro Preto municipality, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Until now, only P. australis de Lamarck (1791: 339) and P. bradei (sub P. commersoniana ) had been reported in Serra do Caparaó ( de Paula-Souza and Souza 2002).

It should be noted that the original publication of the name P. guilleminiana is incorrectly reported in the International Plant Names Index (2017) and Tropicos (2017) databases, where it appears as published in 1881 in Boletín de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias, Córdoba, Argentina, volume 4, page 722, while this name was in fact published in 1852 in de Candolle’s Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis , volume 13(1), pages 722–723 ( Decaisne 1852).

Additional specimens examined (from Serra do Caparaó): — BRAZIL. MINAS GERAIS: Alto Caparaó: Serra do Caparaó , na beira da estrada, no começo da subida pro acesso à Tronqueira, 20°25.218’ S, 41°50.950’ W, 1187 m, 2 November 2015, G. Hassemer et al. 820 ( ASE!; B!; C!; FT!; FURB!; VIES!; W!) ; Serra do Caparaó , beira da trilha da Tronqueira, 20°24.528’ S, 41°50.665’ W, 2147 m, 2 November 2015, G. Hassemer et al. 822 ( C!) ; Serra do Caparaó , beira da trilha da Tronqueira, 20°25.110’ S, 41°49.053’ W, 2231 m, 2 November 2015, G. Hassemer et al. 823 ( C!) ; Serra do Caparaó , beira da trilha da Tronqueira, perto do acesso ao Terreirão, 20°25.225’ S, 41°48.675’ W, 2361 m, 2 November 2015, G. Hassemer et al. 825 ( C!) ; Serra do Caparaó, área de acampamento do Terreirão , perto das casas de madeira, 20°25.239’ S, 41°48.657’ W, 2369 m, 2 November 2015, G. Hassemer et al. 827 ( B!; C!; FT!; FURB!; VIES!; W!) .

Figures

FIGURE 3. A: Population of Plantago bradei in high-elevation grasslands in Serra do Caparaó. B: Population of Plantago guilleminiana in a semi-shaded area in Serra do Caparaó.

FIGURE 5. Distribution map of Plantago commersoniana (purple dots) and other species that were segregated from it since Rahn (1974): P. bradei, and also the location of the new records of P. guilleminiana in Serra do Caparaó (green star); P. hatschbachiana (red diamonds); and P. rahniana (yellow triangles).