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| Ceratostema zamorana M.M. Jiménez & Vélez-Abarca, in Jiménez, Vélez-Abarca, Horna, Jaramillo & Baquero, 2021. |
Tribe Vaccinieae Reichenbach with more than 800 species contains most of the neotropical taxa of Ericaceae Jussieu (Pedraza-Peñalosa 2015a: 35). Species of genus Vaccinium Linneaus (1753: 349) known as blueberries or mortiños in Spanish, are members of Vaccinieae well-known for their economic importance (Pedraza-Peñalosa 2015b: 100). The genus Ceratostema Jussieu (1789: 163) was created by Antoine Jussieu and Ceratostema peruvianum Gmelin (1791: 676) was designated as the type species (Luteyn 1986: 485). It was first treated by Smith in 1952, who published a brief description and an artificial key, recognizing 16 species at that time (Smith 1952). Luteyn (1986) reviewed the genus and provided an updated artificial key to 23 species, including three new ones. Subsequently, a new species from Peru was added and thirteen more from Ecuador were included in the genus (Luteyn 1992, 1996, 2005).
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The Cordillera of the Andes, in southeastern Ecuador, is part of a biodiversity hotspot that contains the highestdiversity of plant species of any similar sized area in the Neotropics (Gerique 2011). A recent study of the paramosand montane forests near the Podocarpus National Park demonstrated that Ericaceae are one of the most importanttaxonomic groups of the pioneer flora with 18 species of nine genera recorded (Lozano et al. 2007). The present workpresents a new species of Ceratostema as a result of a study on the Ericaceae of the upper basin of the Zamora Riverin the province of Zamora-Chinchipe, which is compared to Ceratostema reginaldii (Sleumer 1941: 400) Smith (1952:59), possibly the most closely related species.
Ceratostema zamorana M.M. Jiménez & Vélez-Abarca, sp. nov.
Etymology:—This new species is named after the town of Zamora, the capital of Zamora-Chinchipe Province in Ecuador, where the new species was found.
Marco M. Jiménez, Leisberth Vélez-Abarca, Luis Ocupa Horna, Nelson Jaramillo and Luis E. Baquero. 2021. A New Species of Ceratostema (Ericaceae: Vaccinieae) from Ecuador. Phytotaxa. 520(3); 265-272. DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.520.3.5
