Prodromus of a fern flora of Bolivia. XLII. Update I.
Author
Kessler, Michael
Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zollikerstrasse 107, CH- 8008 Zurich, Switzerland.
Author
Smith, Alan R.
University Herbarium, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Bldg. # 2465, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 - 2465.
Author
Øllgaard, Benjamin
Department of Biology - Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Ny Munkegade 116, building 1137, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
Author
Matos, Fernando B.
Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental (CRIA), Rua João Carlos do Amaral 500, 13070 - 111, Campinas, SP, Brasil.
Author
Moran, Robbin C.
New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, New York, 10458 - 5126, USA.
text
Phytotaxa
2023
2023-12-20
630
3
183
210
https://phytotaxa.mapress.com/pt/article/download/phytotaxa.630.3.2/51376
journal article
10.11646/phytotaxa.630.3.2
1179-3163
10409920
Isoëtes
Kessler & Smith (2018a)
listed six species of
Isoëtes
for
Bolivia
but mentioned that probable undescribed species occur in the country. Since then, two publications (
Pereira
et al
. 2019
,
Brunton & Pereira 2020
) have rectified this situation, describing two new species from the country and clarifying their phylogenetic relationships. We here provide an updated key to the genus
Isoëtes
in
Bolivia
and species treatments for the two newly recognized species.
The discovery of two new species of
Isoëtes
from shallow, seasonal pools on granite outcrops in eastern
Bolivia
suggests that further such microendemic species may occur on these island-like habitats, and this suggests that for further searches on such outcrops might be productive (
Brunton & Pereira 2020
). The two new species were collected in November and March, suggesting that searches should be carried out in the rainy season and that the species may not be found in the dry season, when the pools dry. Further species of
Isoëtes
known from adjacent
Brazil
may also occur in eastern
Bolivia
; these are described and keyed in
Pereira
et al
. (2019)
.
A recent study on two Brazilian species of
Isoëtes
found that certain traits that have been used to characterize species in the genus are seasonally variable depending on water levels (
Cavalheiro-Filho
et al
. 2021
). Variable traits include number of leaves, leaf length, sporangium size, number of megaspores, and megaspore diameter, whereas other traits such as color, ornamentation, and polar/equatorial diameter ratio of the megaspores, alae length, velum length and coverage, and morphometry of sporangial wall cells provide consistent characters for species delimitation. Such variation has not yet been studied among Bolivian species but should be considered when evaluating the taxonomic status of future collections.