Check List 10(6): 1249–1259, 2014 © 2014 Check List and Authors Chec List ISSN 1809-127X (available at www.checklist.org.br) Journal of species lists and distribution Parque Nacional da Serra do Itajaí (southern Brazil) PECIES S OF * ISTS Luís Adriano Funez André Luís de Gasper L shrub and herbs flora Catarina, Brazil. 1 Universidade Regional de Blumenau,[email protected] Herbário FURB, Rua Antônio da Veiga, 140 — Bairro Victor Konder, CEP 89012-900, Blumenau, Santa * Corresponding author. E-mail: Abstract family Asteraceae: This paper (62 species), aim to characterize Melastomataceae the herbaceous (49) and Rubiaceae and shrub (30), species besides diversity a two of new Parque records Nacional for Santa da SerraCatarina do (ItajaíThelypteris (PNSI). glaziovii We identified T.F. Reed 643 and herbaceous Pseudelephantopus and shrub spiralis species distributed in 110 families being the most representative vast diversity of life and the rather large territory, PNSI is one of the most important spots for biodiversity conservation in Santa Catarina. Cronquist). We recorded 22 exotic species. Thus, due to the 10.15560/10.6.1249 DOI: Introduction mesothermal climate with hot summers (Cfa) (Köppen 1948). The Itajaí-Açu watershed covers approximately the memorable efforts of botanists such as Roberto Miguel 15,000 km², and, as Leite and Klein (1990) pointed out, KleinSanta and Catarina’s Raulino Reitz,flora isfounders very well of documented Herbário Barbosa due to the vegetation of this area is known to be very rich in tree Rodrigues and Flora Ilustrada Catarinense authors. It species, lianas and epiphytes, especially for tree species is estimated that today 80% of the species are already such as canela-preta (Ocotea catharinensis Mez), laranjeira- published in the Flora Ilustrada Catarinense (Reitz 1965– do-mato (Sloanea guianensis (Aubl.) Benth.), peroba 1989 and Reis 1999–2011), meaning 3,784 species in 929 (Aspidosperma australe Müll. Arg.) and tanheiro (Alchornea genera and 159 families, published in 189 fascicles and triplinervia (Spreng.) Müll. Arg.). Tree ferns dominates the 15,008 pages (Reis 2011). understory like Alsophila setosa Kaulf., Cyathea phalerata According to Flora do Brasil (2013), in Santa Catarina Mart. and Cyathea corcovadensis (Raddi) Domin, besides there are mentioned 4,434 angiosperm species (4,208 the presence of shrubs of the genus Psychotria L. and native), 420 ferns species latu sensu (415 native) and six Mollinedia Ruiz & Pavon (Sevegnani et al. 2013). gymnosperms (three native), totaling 4,860 taxa, which Thus, the objective of this study was to characterize represents about 15% of all known plant species in Brazil and about 31% of the known species in the Atlantic the largest remnants of Atlantic Subtropical Rainforest in rainforest (Stehmann et al. 2009). southernthe floristic Brazil, diversity the Parque of herbaceous Nacional andda Serra shrub do species Itajaí. of Despite of being recorded, many of these species have very few samples, often quite long time ago, particularly Materials and Methods not arboreal species, which are often excluded from forest Study Area surveys. According to Feelei and Silman (2011), the more The Parque Nacional da Serra do Itajaí (PNSI) was a species are collected, the better it can be evaluated for created in June 2004 with more than 57,000 ha. It is its conservation status, as well as decide appropriate covered by Rainforest (Oliveira-Filho 2009), distributed strategies for their preservation. in sub-montane, montane and upper montane secondary As pointed out by Gilliam and Roberts (2003), and primary vegetation. The region is predominantly herbaceous synusiae is neglected because it does not mountainous with altitudes ranging from about 30 to 1000 represent the structure of the forest and also because it m. Part of it, which belonged to the former Parque Natural does not have commercial value, unlike the trees, which Municipal Nascentes do Garcia, is located in Blumenau city, may have economic value assigned to the timber. However, native species often have useful properties, but lack studies prospects for them. The economic importance Brazil.in the Middle Itajaí Valley, between the coordinates 27°06′ of herbs and shrubs is, for example, the major source of S and 49°10′ W, in Santa Catarina (Figure 1), southern secondary compounds, widely studied searching for new RPPNFor Buguerkopf, logistics reasons, Morro fourdo Sapo locations and Trilha were da defined Chuva, forall ornamental, essences, spices, among many other uses to offield them studies. part The of Parquelocations Nacional are: Parque da SerraEcológico do Itajaí. Spitzkopf, The humansdrugs, besides (Mentz providinget al. 1997; food, Coradin fibers, et al industrial. 2011). inputs, PNSI is part of a major fragment of Atlantic Subtropical The Itajaí Valley is located in Santa Catarina, and is Rainforest, which has previously suffered from several covered by Atlantic Subtropical Rainforest and has humid human disturbances, but is now in an advanced stage of 1249 Funez and de Gasper | Flora of Parque Nacional da Serra do Itajaí Figure 2. Collector curve by month of the species in the Parque Nacional da Serra do Itajaí, Itajaí Valley, Santa Catarina, Brazil. *Species previously collected and which were not collected in this study. species, new records for PNSI, new records for the state, exoticanalyzed: species, species threatened reported species in the includedliterature at and national collected and state red lists. to Raunkiaer (1934). A collector curve (Figure 2) was generatedWe classified to determine the PNSI if speciesthe species by life are form well accordingsampled. Field trips were made over a half year, during the warm season (September to April), to collect the specimens in reproductive stage. Plants which were not determined Figure 1. Location of the Parque Nacional da Serra do Itajaí, Itajaí Valley, at species level were excluded from analysis to avoid Santa Catarina, Brazil. overestimating the number of species. regeneration. The climate is tropical humid with no dry Results season and thermal averages never below 15°C. Rainfall - are abundant and evenly distributed throughout the year, ra do Itajaí (PNSI) (Table 1), these species were distributed however, there is a period of more intense rain during the in 486We recorded(75.58%) 643 Angiosperms species from with Parque 86 families Nacional (78.18%); da Ser summer, with less than 60 days with less than 100 mm 145 (22.55%) fern species, with 21 families (21.81%); 11 rainfall. The relative humidity is high, ranging from 84– species (1.71%) of Lycophytes into two families (1.9%) 86% (Santa Catarina 1986). and one Gymnosperm (<1%). The ten most representa- tive families are in Figure 3. The most abundant life forms Data collection were phanerophytes and hemicriptophytes (Figure 4). At least two species, Thelypteris glaziovii T.F. Reed (Thely- (Filgueiras et al.1994), in previously mentioned locations. pteridaceae) and Pseudelephantopus spiralis Cronquist OneWe to collectedthree fertile fertile individuals specimens of eachby activespecies search were (Asteraceae) is confirmed to be a new record for Santa collected and, after processed, deposited at the Herbarium Catarina state. A total of 215 herbaceous and shrubs species (33.17%) collected sterile samples, and these were grown in a were not collected in this study, when compared to Dr. Roberto Michael Klein (FURB). When necessary, we searching in the literature, discussing with taxonomists andgreenhouse compared until it flowering. to materials We identifiedwith other the herbariamaterial to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III (APG 2009), ferns accordingcollections. to Angiosperm Smith et al. (2006) species and were adaptations classified of according Rothfels et al. (2012), Kramer and Green (1990) for Lycophytes and Christenhusz et al. (2011) for Gymnosperms. Flora Ilustrada Catarinense (Reitz 1965), and herbariums FURB, FLOR, We compiled data published in theHBR, CRIA BHCB, database, CESJ, CNMT, aiming CRI, to incrementFUEL, HEPH, the HUCS,herbaceous- HVAT, ICN, JOI, LUSC, MBM, MFS, RB, UEC and UPCB through Figure 3. Ten most representative families in number of species in the in this study all vascular plants with a height equal to or herbaceous and shrubby of the Parque Nacional da Serra do Itajaí, Itajaí shrub list species already sampled at PNSI. We considered Valley, Santa Catarina, Brazil. less than 3 m that were using soil or rocks as substrate. We 1250 Funez and de Gasper | Flora of Parque Nacional da Serra do Itajaí trips 428 species, and 217 (33.74%) are new records for PNSI.literature or CRIA data base. We found during the field From the 643 species recorded in this study, 22 were species and a new species of Rhynchospora Vahl is been described.exotic species (Table 1). We also found five threatened Discussion The importance of this Protected Areas for Atlantic Subtropical Rainforest (southern Brazil) biodiversity protection is proved, once again, by its richness. Adding up the tree species researched by the Management Plan of PNSI (Brasil 2009), where 340 tree and shrub species were recorded, as well as collections made by other researchers Figure 4. in PNSI, until now there were recorded 1,086 species of the Parque Nacional da Serra do Itajaí, Itajaí Valley, Santa Catarina, Brazil. vascular. Distribution of the number of species in five forms sampled in may explain the fact, since many exotic species are closely growing over the leaf litter layer on top of Morro do