A Florula Lagoensis de Warming revisitada

Abstract

The Danish botanic Eugen Warming (1841-1924) started his career in Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, between 1863 and 1866, while working as secretary of the Danish palaeontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund (1801-1880). During this period, Warming collected a great amount of plants and informations that came up to one of the first text in Plant Ecology, Lagoa Santa and where can be found the first floristic list of the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado), the Florula Lagoensis. Going back to this work is very important to refresh and to broadcast the knowledge about the huge Brazilian biodiversity. In the first chapter, we revise the cultural and philosophical scene of the XIX century that acted upon this naturalist career, presents a quickly bibliography; informations about Lagoa Santaand its importance to science. In the second chapter, we revisit the Florula Lagoensis, updating nomenclatural and taxonomically all flowering plants, and analyze the contribution of new collections to this place. We also recovered the type specimens collected by Warming in Lagoa Santa. Only 539 (23,7%) from 2,270 of Warmings samples in Lagoa Santa have been collected by botanists after almost 150 years and new additions to the list were only 228 (9,1%). Nomenclatural types collected by Warming were 373 (14,1%). This small area, of about 170 Km², revealed considerable superior richness when compared to other sites of Minas Gerais with bigger areas. In the third chapter, a new species of Solanum (Solanaceae) from the Geminata clade is described to the Brazilian flora, Solanum lagoense Stehmann, sp. nov. The species is only known from Lapinha, a rocky massif located in the LagoaSanta karst. We present a description, taxonomic comments and assessment for conservation status that points out the species as critically endangered.We stress the completeness of Warmings work and highlight the importance of following Warmings footsteps and lessons: 1) to collect intensively; 2) to observe details in the field; 3) andto work in a collaborative way. For these reasons, its fair to recognize Eugene Warming as the father of floristic studies in Brazil.