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Repatriation of NE Brazilian Legumes

Goniorrhachis marginata, a caesalpinioid legume endemic to eastern Brazil. Photo: G.P. Lewis.

The project is part of a family-wide NE Brazil Repatriation programme (see Repatriation of Herbarium data for Northeast Brazil). Two Brazilian repatriation officers spent a total of two years databasing the 9,066 Kew Herbarium legume specimens from NE Brazil. These represent 869 species in 135 genera. In addition, 472 type specimens were imaged. All these label data are now available online and a full set of printed images of the types (together with protologues) has been sent to each of four major NE Brazilian institutions (HUEFS, CEPEC, IPA and RB). The database is also to be published (in 2006) as the second volume in the ongoing series Repatriation of Kew Herbarium Data for the Flora of Northeastern Brazil, edited by D. Zappi. This publication will complete the legume team commitment to this Brazil project.

The aim of the project has been to generate a legume checklist to assist students of legume systematics to gain a snapshot of the legume diversity from Northeast Brazil held in the Kew herbarium, while the scanned type specimens available online (www.kew.org/data/repatbr/homepage.html) will assist in the identification of newly collected material, and in many cases will either obviate the need for a loan, or allow the planning of a trip to Kew based on a clear knowledge of what is available for consultation. In addition, a full list of exsiccatae included in the hard-copy volume will help Herbarium curators to update the identification of their duplicate legume specimens, ultimately leading to a standardisation of legume nomenclature for the region.

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