Delimitação de espécies e tratamento taxonômico do complexo Ocotea canaliculata (Lauraceae)

Abstract

In this study, we determine how many species are in the Ocotea canaliculata complex (COC), initially composed by eight species. We collected morphological, spectral and geographic distribution data from 422 specimens that correspond to names within the COC complex. We use multivariate statistical analyzes to: 1) test the COC species circumscriptions through your definitions in following description in literature and identifications of specimens from herbaria, and 2) infer the number of species and their limits, therefore postulating new circumscriptions for the species. For morphological circumscriptions of species, a morphological hierarchical cluster analysis was used with Ward’s agglomerative method of minimal variance through Gower's dissimilarity matrix. We test morphological and spectral data with the groups suggested and a classification of the samples in groups that had spectral and morphological support, interpreting these grouping based in the magnitude and significance of morphological, spectral and geographic contexts. A total of six morphological-spectral groups were identified in the COC, and recognized as species: O. alata, O. canaliculata, O. glomerata, O. longifolia, O. nitida, and a new species O. aristada sp. nov. base on minimum separation in all analyses of the specimen’s name as O. magnifica, O. aurantiodora and O. bracteosa we recognized as synonyms of O. glomerata, O. longifolia and O. canaliculata, respectively. Finally, the present study indicates that the use of morphology, spectral and geographic distribution data are good lines of evidence in the process of species delimitation, leading to a more redefinition of the species concepts in the O. canaliculata complex. A taxonomic treatment is presented for the species recognized here with morphological descriptions, distribution maps and an identification key.