Selaginella ophioderma (Selaginellaceae–Lycopodiophyta), a tropical rainforests new species from the Eastern slopes of the Andes mountains of northwestern South America in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru

Abstract

The Selaginella flabellata species group occurs throughout the Neotropics and is particularly species-rich in South America, especially in the northwestern part of the continent (i.e. Colombia, Ecuador and Peru). In that region, S. praestans and S. quadrifaria are not well understood taxonomically due to similar habit and median leaves, as well as overlapping distribution ranges. As a result, they are frequently confused. Furthermore, S. quadrifaria, as currently conceived, is an extremely variable species. Nonetheless, our extensive study of 148 duplicates corresponding to 73 gatherings of S. praestans and S. quadrifaria, as currently conceived, allowed us to clearly separate them. In addition, based on our analyses, we segregated S. quadrifaria into two morphologically distinct taxa, including S. ophioderma, which is described here as a new species. Selaginella ophioderma is characterized by its leaves spreading along main stems and broadly ovate-oblong to rotund or orbicular median leaves with broadly acute or obtuse to rounded apices. Moreover, its median leaf lower surfaces are covered by stomata at both sides of the midribs of the leaf laminae. Thus, we conclude that although S. ophioderma, S. praestans and S. quadrifaria have overlapping distribution ranges in the eastern slopes of the Andes in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, they represent morphologically distinct taxa.

Selaginella likabalika Aran & Roy sp. nov: a new species from Arunachal Pradesh, India

“…the largest group among lycophytes representing the monotypic family Selaginellaceae (Weststrand & Korall, 2016a). The genus perhapes constitutes about 700 species (PPG I, 2016;Liu et al, 2022;Valdespino et al, 2022;Wei, 2023). Studies based on morphology and molecular analysis considered the family monophyletic (Korall et al, 1999;Zhou & Zhang, 2015).…”

Selaginella P.Beauv. (Selaginellaceae) in the state of Maranhão, northeastern, Brazil: A floristic survey and a new record for the Cerrado domain

“…This work, however, does not include species descriptions, except for new taxa. Generally, the works used to identify neotropical Selaginella species are original descriptions and floras (Alston et al 1981, Jermy 1990, Webster 1992, Valdespino 1992, Cremers & Boudrie 2007, Zhou & Zhang 2015, Heringer et al 2016, Valdespino 2015a, b, Valdespino et al 2015, Valdespino et al 2018a, b, Valdespino 2020, Valdespino et al 2022a, b, Góes-Neto et al 2023. The infrageneric circumscription proposed by Jermy (1986Jermy ( , 1990) is widely accepted.…”