Passiflora L. in the Atlantic Forest of Rio Grande do Norte state: taxonomy and conservation status
Conservation units, Flora, Passifloraceae, Phytogeographic Domains
Passiflora L. has 500 species and pantropical distribution, its species are known by passion fruit and them occur mainly in South and Central America. In Brazil, 157 species are registered, among which, 87 species are endemic. The Atlantic Forest has the highest richness of Passion fruit's species compared to other domains in Brazil, 85 species. In chapter 1, we present the taxonomic treatment of Passiflora L., the most representative genus in Passifloraceae s.s. family, at the Atlantic Forest in Rio Grande do Norte state (RN); in chapter 2, the conservation status of the inventoried species is evaluated. This study promoted an increase in the sampling effort of the genus for the domain, where 12 species were registered: Passiflora alata Curtis, P. auriculata Kunth., P. cincinnata Mast., P. edulis Sims, P. foetida L., P. laurifolia L., P. mucronata Lam., P. silvestris Vell., P. suberosa L., P. subrotunda Mast., P. watsoniana Mast. and a specie that its characterization wasn’t possible with no other specie of the group, Passiflora sp. The increase in sampling effort enabled their conservation assessment and analysis of geographical distribution at the Atlantic domain in RN. Among the species, four were classified “Critically Endangered”, four as “Endangered”, one as “Vulnerable”, one as “Near Threatened” and two as “Least concern”. This study reveals the worrying conservation scenario of Passiflora at Atlantic Forest in RN. Also, these results show the importance of movements that encourage floristics studies, auxiliary taxonomic tools and promotion of actions that aims the flora conservation, in addition to the relevance of monitoring these populations in Atlantic forestry remnants of RN.