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New Utrics in NE Brazil


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Hello everyone

I recently became aware of some fantastic new Utrics discovered in coastal habitats of Rio Grande do Norte state, NE Brazil The person who found these Utrics was prof. Jomar Jardim from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, but the person who actually told me about these findings was Andreia Donza, who is studying Utrics for her PhD at the Museu Nacional/ Federal Unversity of Rio de Janeiro.

First, let's take a look at the habitat, which is typical coastal "restinga", with fresh water lagoons among sand dunes:

Vista_vegetaao.jpg

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Notice in the 1st photo above how you can see the ocean in the background. And in the pic below you can see Alessandra Jardim (Jomar's wife) in one of the wet habitats where the Utrics grew on the edge of a lagoon.

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And now the plants. The 1st one appears to me to be U.erectiflora, which is relatively common in restinga habitats all over the (enormous) coast of Brazil:

Uerectiflora.jpg

The 2nd species also has yellow flowers, though much bigger:

DSC_0488.jpg

This appears to be U.cornuta, a species common to the E coast of N.America all the way S to the Caribbean. It wasn't know from S.America until 2007, when I discovered it at the Len��is Maranhenses in NE Brazil (See photos on the last page of this topic: http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19900&st=0&p=166837&hl=+len%C3%A7%C3%B3is%20+maranhenses&fromsearch=1entry166837).

Therefore, this is only the 2nd known collection of U.cornuta for S.America & Brazil, and the 1st for the state of Rio Grande do Norte.

Now the 3rd species, this was an even more amazing discovery!

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The plant above is without doubt U.resupinata, a species also know from the E coast of N America, C America and Caribbean. It had never been recorded for Brazil (except for a possible collection from the Amazon, which I am still trying to confirm).

Both U.cornuta and U.resupinata are terrestrial species, but prefer to grow in flooded habitats. Whereas U.erectiflora prefers growing in humid sandy habitats bordering the lagoons, but without getting its feet too wet, like U.resupinata & U.cornuta.

I only received these 3 shots of the Utrics, unfortunately none taken in their natural habitats. But hopefully prof. Jomar will send new photos in the future, maybe with new amazing discoveries! ;)

Best wishes to all,

Fernando Rivadavia

Edited by Fernando Rivadavia
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