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Morphometrics and Phylogeography of Anthurium and Monstera (Araceae) in NE Brazil

Morphometrics and Phylogeography of Anthurium and Monstera in NE Brazil: PCA of Monstera leaf shape data using Elliptical Fourier Analysis

This is a pioneering study of the genetic and morphological diversity of a little-known archipelago of natural humid forest fragments in Northeast Brazil. The moist montane (“brejo”) forests of Ceará are situated roughly equidistant from the Amazon and Atlantic forest regions, and are found exclusively in upland habitats in the interior of the state, isolated by the semi-arid caatinga vegetation which covers more than 70% of the state’s territory. Ceará has no littoral moist forest, in contrast to the eastern states of Brazil. The project focuses on two polymorphic species complexes of Araceae (Monstera adansonii, Anthurium pentaphyllum), which in Ceará are restricted to “brejo” forests. These species complexes are epiphytic and lianescent taxa restricted to moist forest habitats and which, as far as is currently known, cannot survive outside this ecosystem. The Araceae populations are hypothesized to be genetically isolated from one another at the present time. Little is known about their dispersal vectors, but the morphology of the fruits suggests that possible candidates are primates or bats.

Population samples are being compared statistically using quantitative markers (molecular [Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms] and morphological [Elliptical Fourier analysis of leaf outlines]). Comparisons are being made not only between local populations in Ceará, but between sites sampled in the Atlantic and Amazon forest regions, where the study species also occur. It is intended that the project will serve as a methodological model for further biogeographical studies of the forest islands of Northeast Brazil, aimed at their conservation.

The project began in February 2002 and is now in its final stages, due for completion by the end of 2006. The lead researcher of the study is Ivanilza M. Andrade, a university lecturer in botany at the State University of Vale do Acaraú in Ceará. She is undertaking her PhD on this topic at the State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), Bahia, NE Brazil, supervised by Dr Simon Mayo (RBG Kew) and Dr Cássio van den Berg (UEFS). The project is part of an official programme of collaboration between Kew and UEFS in research and capacity building in NE Brazil. 

Outputs to date include posters at two major conferences (1, 2). Future outputs from the project will include the doctoral qualification (2006), and four papers in refereed journals.

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