Systematics of the tribe Duranteae: Insights into the taxonomy of the genus Duranta L.

MORONI, PABLO DANIEL; O'LEARY NATALY

Quito

Congreso; XII Congreso Latinoamericano de Botánica 2018; 2018

Universidad Técnica de Cotopaxi

Duranteae is a recently circumscribed tribe, including the genera Bouchea Cham., Chascanum E. Mey., Duranta L., Recordia Moldenke and Stachytarpheta Vahl. Historically, these genera had been placed either within Lantaneae or Cytha- rexyleae tribes based upon fruit characters as a diagnostic trait for this tribal arrangement. Duranta is a New World genus of shrubs and small trees distributed from southern North America and the Caribbean to northern Argentina in South America. The genus is characterized for having fruits that are drupes with four or five 2-seeded pyrenes, enclosed by the adherent, ac- crescent fruiting-calyx which is usually connivent. There has been considerable taxonomy controversy regarding the number of Duranta taxa recognized because of the difficulty of finding morphological variation, especially with respect to habit, spines and inflorescence architecture. Furthermore, most names have until recently remained untypified. From the time of Linnaeus to 1984, changes in the taxonomy of Duranta occurred through the publication of new taxa and by means of restricted floristic treatments. More than 100 names were published in the genus, but ca. 17 species were accepted by Sanders, who performed the only comprehensive synopsis of Duranta. To complicate things further, this work included the proposal of putative hybrids, which has caused nomenclatural disorders and misapplication of names. As part of a modern taxonomic revision based on the morphological study of herbarium material, advances on the systematics of Duranta are presented here. Our treatment recognizes ca. 23 species, differing in several substantial ways from all treatments of the genus. It mainly contrasts in the re-establishment of species from the synonymy of D. erecta L., whose species-boundaries and geographical distribution have been overestimated. Furthermore, advances in the assessment of geographic distribution reveal Duranta as a genus harboring several endemisms in Colombia, Peru and the Antilles.