Biodiversity
New species of plant is named after an IBGE officer
October 29, 2024 02h00 PM | Last Updated: October 29, 2024 03h54 PM
The Cerrado flora now counts on a new representative. It is Paepalanthus fonsecae, of family Eriocaulaceae. The name is a tribute to Marina Fonseca, the Curator of the IBGE Herbarium, the first person to collect the new species during an expedition to the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park in 2018.
"At that time, we collected several plants, from several families, and I didn´t realize it," says 66-year-old Fonseca, 45 of them dedicated to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Graduated as educator and a flora lover by professional choice, Fonseca discovered its importance when a botanist visited the IBGE Herbarium. "After studies and analyses, he proved that it was a new species, which took my surname. I was very honored with this tribute," acnowledges her.
The species was located in the municipality of Alto Paraíso de Goiás (GO) during a field expedition of the IBGE Herbarium team with the Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro. The collection was cited in a scientific article published in October 2024 in journal Nordic Journal of Botany by the team of Professor Marcelo Trovó, of the Department of Botany of the Institute of Biology of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Paepalanthus fonsecae is only known in two collections of the central region of Brazil, in the municipalities of Alto Paraíso de Goiás and Cavalcante. According to the B criterium of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the new species should be treated as critically endangered. In addition to a sample that was incorporated into the IBGE Herbarium, other three samples were sent to herbariums in Rio de Janeiro, Goiás and São Paulo.
IBGE Herbarium has more than 87 thousand species listed.
Herbarium is the name used to designate a collection of dehydrated plants, or part of them, which are technically and scientifically prepared for documentary, historical and comparative studies of the flora of a region or country. The IBGE has two herbariums: the unit located in Brasília, at the IBGE Ecological Reserve (Recor), known as IBGE Herbarium, with more than 87 thousand species duly listed, and the unit of Salvador, located in the Botanic Garden of Salvador, known as RadamBrasil Herbarium.
On-site visits to the IBGE Herbarium of the Ecological Reserve in Brasília can be scheduled on business days, according to the availability of the team to host visitors. The contact email is herbarioibge.df@ibge.gov.br.
