Botanical Collections of Northeast Brazil: History and Evolution

Maria Regina de Vasconcelos Barbosa & Luciano Paganucci de Queiroz

The botanical collections of the Northeast Brazil are composed by collections of 30 herbaria, distributed throughout the nine States in the region. All together, these herbaria gather more than 820 thousand specimens from all large groups of plants (Bryophytes, Pteridophytes and Seed Plants), algae and fungi. Nearly 80% of the specimens housed at the herbaria in the Northeast region (about 660 thousand specimens) are found in only nine herbaria in the States of Bahia, Pernambuco, Paraíba and Ceará.

The whole content of these collections from Northeast region comprise a priceless heritage of the flora of the Brazilian Semi-arid, since most of the specimens come from this region, particularly the plants from the Caatinga (Introduction and Chapter 6), seasonal forests, cerrado (savannah-like vegetation) and campos rupestres (Chapters 6 and 9).

The herbaria of the Northeast Brazil are rather new when compared to those in other regions of the country or abroad, most of them created from the 1950’s. Many of these herbaria are linked to teaching institutions, some having more of a didactic profile rather than a research one. Since the history of these herbaria is not actually known, this article presents some facts following chronological order per State.

Pernambuco

The first herbarium in the Northeast region started in 1916, when Dom Bento Pickel organized a botanical collection with around 3,500 species, at the Escola Superior de Agricultura, in São Lourenço. In 1944, the collection was transferred to Escola Superior de Agricultura de Pernambuco, where it remained until the decade of 1950’s, when it was merged to the collection of the Instituto de Pesquisas Agronômicas de Pernambuco (IPA) by Dárdano de Andrade Lima.

Founded in 1935, the IPA herbarium is closely linked to the very history of the institute. Its creator was Professor Vasconcelos Sobrinho, who also founded and leaded the Botanical Section of the IPA between 1935 a nd 1937. In 1938, along with the Instituto de Pesquisas Agronômicas, the herbarium was transferred to the buildings of the Escola Superior de Agricultura de Pernambuco, where nowadays the UFRPE is located. In 1960, the collection was transferred to its own headquarters.

From the decade of 1950 on, the herbarium was supervised by Professor Dárdano de Andrade-Lima. Under his management the IPA herbarium boosted greatly, becoming internationally known through scientific exchanges among Brazilian and international botanists. The greatest improvement of the collection happened in the period of 1979 to 1985, mostly because of the CNPq’s Programa Flora.

The IPA herbarium is the oldest source of botanical information on the flora of the Northeast Brazil . Nowadays, it has a collection of about 70 thousand sheets, mostly of plants from the Caatinga including a great number of specimens of Palm trees from Brazil.

Due to the efforts of Professor Vasconcelos Sobrinho, a herbarium was created at UFRPE in which is now known under the acronym of PEUFR. Most of the samples are typical of the Caatinga Biome, having been collected in different kinds of caatinga and in montane forests (locally known as Brejos) which outstand as islands within the Caating a. It is also worth mentioning as outstanding collections: Sudene herbarium (HSDB), whose collection was incorporated to the one of PEUFR in 1981; the collection of the flora of the region of Xingó; and the collection of the flora of different mountain forests of Pernambuco.

Also linked to UFRPE, there is the Sergio Tavares herbarium (HST), which had as its initial nucleus the collection organized by the researcher Sergio Tavares, linked to SUDENE and to ITEP, containing 4,600 specimens. This collection started with a forest inventory of the Northeast region promoted by SUDENE in the decades of 1960 and 1970. This collection also includes the wood collections of SUDENE (about 80 thousand samples) and of the ITEP (approximately 4,600 samples).

Also in Pernambuco, there is the Pe. Camille Torrand herbarium (URM), founded in 1954 along with the former Instituto de Micologia linked to UFPE. This is nowadays considered the largest one in South America in its area, with about 79 thousand specimens, representative of the mycoflora of several parts of the World. Because of the importance of its collection, the URM herbarium is worldwide known as one of the most important mycological herbaria of the Tropics. Important collections belong to the herbarium, such as: Pe. Camille Torrend, von Petrak, Augusto Chaves Batista and others. Among the samples in Brazil it is worth mentioning the ones from the Amazon region, Central Brazilian Plateau and from the State of Pernambuco . The specimens housed are representatives of several groups, from Myxomycetes to Lichens, particularly the Lichens formed by anamorphic Ascomycota. The Lichens collection left by Chaves Batista and his team has been acknowledged for its great significance. In the collection, there are specimens from nearly all groups of fungi particularly foliose Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and foliose Lichens.

Also at UFPE, the UFP herbarium was founded by the pharmacist botanist Dr. Geraldo Mariz in 1968, which belongs to the Department of Botany. UFP herbarium focuses on the Caatinga and Atlantic Forest , since these are the most representative ecosystems of the State. The collections of Bryophytes, Pteridophytes and Myxomicetes deserve special attention for having around 21 thousand specimens. The UFP herbarium holds an interesting collection of sea algae sampled in Rio de Janeiro between 1866 and 1868.

Paraíba

In Paraíba, the first organized collections date from 1938 and began with the collections of Lauro Pires Xavier, who was then in charge of the Serviço Florestal na Paraíba (nowadays, Herbário Lauro Pires Xavier – JPB), which belongs to the Department of Systematics and Ecology at UFPB. Also pioneer in the State is the collection made by Jaime Coelho de Moraes (currently, Herbário EAN, also at UFPB), who was professor of Botany at the former Escola de Agronomia do Nordeste. In the 1980’s, JPB herbarium joined the network of the CNPq’s Projeto Flora, which boosted the herbarium. From 1997 on, JPB became the reference herbarium of the Projeto Flora Paraibana, also supported by CNPq. In 2002, JPB herbarium became the first herbarium in the Northeast region to be accredited by CGEN as a faithful depositary of the Brazilian flora.

JPB herbarium has as its main objective support studies on the flora of Paraíba, keeping a rich collection of its plant diversity. It is the main floristic collection of Paraíba, working as a reference herbarium to the botanic studies and other researches dealing with local plants.

Since 2001, JPB herbarium has settled a cooperative agreement with the recently founded Botanical Garden of João Pessoa, as its associate herbarium.

Ceará

In Ceará, Prisco Bezerra herbarium (EAC) was founded at Escola de Agronomia. Its founder, the botanist Prisco Bezerra, accomplished its first collections in different Brazilian regions and ecosystems, giving emphasis to leguminous of the Northeast region, which was his specialty. Later, the botanists Afrânio Fernandes, also specialist in leguminous, and José de Ribamar joined the EAC herbarium and continued the survey on the phanerogamic flora of the Northeast region. The expansion of the botanic collection at EAC herbarium started with the implementation of CNPq’s Projeto Flora, at the end of the 1970’s with the efforts of Professor Édson Nunes. The main collection of the State of Ceará is housed at EAC herbarium, being a reference on the regional floral.

Bahia

The history of the current botanic collections present in Bahia began in 1950, when Prof. Alexandre Leal Costa founded the herbarium of UFBA (acronym ALCB), incorporating to it specimens brought from the Caminhoá herbarium, herbarium of the Faculdade de Filosofia da Universidade da Bahia and herbarium of the Colégio Antônio Vieira, the last organized by Priest Camilo Torrend. Later, under the curator of Prof. Lectícia S. S. Farias, the collection of the herbarium at the former Instituto Agronômico do Leste (IAL), organized by Prof. Geraldo Carlos Pereira Pinto, was also incorporated to the herbarium at UFBA. Currently, the herbarium has a collection of about 81 thousand specimens from different areas in Bahia, including one of the main collections of bryophytes in the Northeast region. There is also a significant collection of plants from Chapada Diamantina, the result of an inter-institutional project for the study of the flora in this region, coordinated by Professor Maria Lenise S. Guedes.

In 1965, the herbarium at the Centro de Pesquisas do Cacau (CEPEC) was created. Dr. Sérgio G. da Vinha was its first curator, but it is also worth mentioning the contribution of Mr. Talmon T. Santos, a great empirical collector with deep knowledge on the vegetation of the cocoa region of Bahia , later one of the greatest Brazilian parataxonomists. In the early 1970’s, the CEPEC herbarium organized an intensive sampling program in the region of Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, in cooperation with RBG-Kew. With such partnership, the collection has reached international status. In 1979, the fast growth of the collection led CEPLAC to hire Dr. Scott A. Mori from NYBG for three years to the position of curator. That was a decisive period to the increase of CEPEC herbarium and its recognition as a model collection. The increase of the collection and the intensive exchange with other institutions and specialists made the collection at CEPEC one of the most important Brazilian regional collections.

In the early 1980’s, André M. de Carvalho, CEPEC’s curator at the time, implemented a pioneer project of digitalization of its collection with partial funding by CNPq. He has also started an ongoing partnership project with NYBG in order to study the Atlantic Forest in the South of Bahia. In 2005, the CEPEC herbarium reached the number of over 100,000 samples, one of the most important collections focused on the Atlantic Biome nowadays.

At CEPEC herbarium, the floras of the main federal and state reserves of the State of Bahia are documented, as well as samples of Raymond M. Harley, Scott A. Mori, G. Hatschbach, André M. Carvalho, Wm. Wayt Thomas, among others. The collection of types at CEPEC makes a total of 1,700 sheets. Pictures of nomenclatural types and historical collections of Bahia are also housed at CEPEC as part of a partnership project with Kew Gardens (see Chapter 5).

On the decade of 1970’s, the RADAMBRASIL Project was started. At first it was implemented in the Amazon region and later expanded its activities to other regions of the country. In the beginning of its activities, the RADAM Project sent botanic material to institutions already widely recognized, such as the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro , Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia and Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi. However, in 1980, a herbarium directly linked to the project was founded in Bahia, named Radambrasil herbarium (HRB).

The herbarium of UEFS (HUEFS) was created in 1980, having the biologist Larry Ronald Noblick as its first curator. Its activities focused on the flora of the microregion of Feira de Santana. In August of 1986, the biologist Luciano Paganucci de Queiroz took over the position and defined as priorities for the herbarium the increase of sampled area represented in the collection and its digitalization of the collection. Alongside the process of digitalization, there was the intensification of the sampling in the semi-arid region of Bahia , including the caatinga and the campos rupestres of Chapada Diamantina. In the beginning of the 1990’s, the projects of the floristic surveys in the caatinga (a partnership with RBG-Kew) and in Chapada Diamantina (CNPq) got financial support. Vacancies for professors were also opened then and these professionals joined the herbarium team, which has had nowadays the largest number of taxonomists of the Northeast Brazil.

Currently, HUEFS is the center of large projects such as the IMSEAR (MCT/CNPq, Chapter 1) and PPBIO (MCT, Chapter 2) of the semi-arid region. As the IMSEAR main herbarium, it gathers material of the Semi-arid sampled by the 17 institutions that take part on the project, what makes its collection one of the most important for the flora of the Caatinga. There are also important reference collections for the flora of Bahia, including mainly the Leguminosae, Cactaceae, Eriocaulaceae and Palmae collections. About 800 nomenclatural types are housed at HUEFS, in addition to around 2,000 cibachromes of types of plants collected in the Northeast region (Chapter 5). The current collection holds to around 103,000 specimens, the second largest herbarium of the Northeast and one of the main collections of the Caatinga Biome. Notably, all collection is now digitized, being one of the few Brazilian herbaria in such situation.

Other collections from Bahia include those of UESC herbarium, in Ilhéus, started in1983, and of UESB, created in 2002, in Jequié.

The herbaria of Bahia have experience on the formation of inventory networks. In 1996, a network for the accomplishment of Chapada Diamantina Project was structured, coordinated by UFBA and funded by RBG-Kew. Later, this network was enlarged for a big project, Flora da Bahia (Chapter 7), coordinated by UEFS and that joins all botanical institutions of the State.

More recent Collections in other States of the Northeast Region

In the States of Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Alagoas, the collections are more recent.

Graziela Barroso herbarium (TEPB), at UFPI, was founded in September 1977, and it is currently the most representative of the flora in the States of Piauí and Maranhão. There are two herbaria in Maranhão, UFMA and SLS, both at UFMA, however, none of them has been working regularly lately.

The herbarium of the Escola Superior de Agricultura de Mossoró (MOSS), in Rio Grande do Norte State , was founded in 1973 by professor Odaci Fernandes de Oliveira. Nowadays, this herbarium holds around 7,600 specimens from several groups of vegetation. Great part of it was collected in the decade of 1980 with the projects Flora do Rio Grande do Norte and Flora do Parque das Dunas. Thus, the collection of MOSS herbarium is the most representative one of the Sate flora, since the State does not have another herbarium of such magnitude.

The second herbarium of Rio Grande do Norte State belongs to UFRN and was founded in 1984, with the main objective of registering the vegetal specimens that occur along the seashore of the capital city of Natal. It is a little herbarium that is being structured having recently with hired a taxonomist.

In Alagoas, the herbarium of the Instituto do Meio Ambiente (MAC), main center of botanical reference in the State, was founded in 1978 under the orientation of Dr. Dárdano de Andrade-Lima of IPA. The most important collections at MAC come from restinga and Atlantic Forest areas, where the largest number of surveys took place.

In Sergipe, the herbarium of UFS (ASE) holds 7,000 exsiccates, coming mostly from the shore and the Caatinga, particularly from the region of the Serra de Itabaiana. This herbarium is also being structured with the recent recruitment of a taxonomist.

Considerations

The botanical collections of the Northeast region of Brazil have been housed in ten medium sized herbaria (collections between 30 and 110 thousand specimens) which make up a total of about 660 thousand specimens. Besides these ones, there are 20 other small herbaria (less than 30 thousand specimens), that hold more 135 thousand sheets. The majority of the samples deposited in these herbaria come from the Semi-arid, representing a priceless collection of the flora in this region.

It is worth noticing that some of these collections are in poor conditions due to the lack of taxonomists. Besides that, many of theses collections need funding to boost the sampling activities and to form taxonomists and, on the other hand, to improve its infra-structure. Part of these demands have been met by projects which have included institutions of the Northeast region, such as IMSEAR (Chapter 1) and, more recently, PPBIO of the Semi-arid (Chapter 2). We hope that these actions help increase the integration of these herbaria, including the digitization of collections all together and the availability of their information on the network.

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