Flora of Paraíba

Maria Regina de V. Barbosa, Maria de Fátima Agra & Rita Baltazar de Lima



The Flora Paraibana Project integrates researches and graduate students in Biology and Pharmaceutical Sciences from UFPB, graduate students of Plant Biology from UFPE and botanists contributing from several institutions in Brazil or abroad.

Its main goals are:

1- Identify the plant species that occur in the State of Paraíba , with data on their geographic distribution in the State;

2 - Make available scientific information of the herbaria JPB and EAN;

3 - Publish illustrated monographs on plant families from the State of Paraíba;

4 - Increase the database on the flora of Paraíba through more intensive sampling in remnants of native vegetation;

5 - Prepare new plant taxonomists in Paraíba.

The activities began informally in 1994, with the survey of the family Asteraceae from Paraíba and the gathering of efforts in order to improve knowledge on the local flora. At that time, sampling of plants of medical interest was intensified in the ‘caatinga’ of Paraíba, with support of PREBELAC/NYBG and the Northeast Plant Program (CNPq/APNE/RBG-Kew). Floristic surveys were also carried out in two protected areas, State Park of Pico do Jabre (funded by National Geographic Society; in collaboration with Missouri Botanical Garden, USA) and the Mata do Buraquinho. However, only on March of 1997, the Flora Paraibana Project was formalized.

The Project was planned in five stages: (1) identification of the material housed in the herbaria of Paraíba (JPB e EAN); (2) nomenclatural revision; (3) elaboration of preliminary checklists by family; (4) complementary field work; and (5) elaboration of floristic monographs. The three first stages are almost finished, and the other two are being developed, with some taxonomic treatments already published (below).

The Flora Paraibana Project has contributed for the enrichment of the JPB collection and the knowledge of the local flora as a whole. It has also supported ethnobotanic, pharmacobotanic, phytochemistry and pharmacological studies on species with medical interest carried out at the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Technology (LTF) at UFPB.

Project activities have been supported by scholarship grantees and trainees. In this sense, several students have been trained in curatorial activities and taxonomic procedures.

Main Results

All angiosperm sheets from JPB were examined, the identification of the species updated, and its data digitized. The digitized information stored in the database of the JPB herbarium has contributed for several other botanical projects and correlated areas, such as the survey of Caatinga from Paraíba for IMSEAR (Chapter 1) and the Checklist of Angiosperm from the Northeast Brazil , (APNE/CNIP), among others.

The collection has been identified either by researchers and trainees of the project or by specialists who have collaborated on it. Some of those also visited Paraíba: Gustavo Martinelli (Bromeliaceae), Alain Chautems (Gesneriaceae), Haroldo Cavalcanti de Lima (Leguminosae), Tarciso Filgueiras (Poaceae), Wm. Wayt Thomas (Cyperaceae ), Daniela Zappi (Cactaceae), Raymond Harley (Lamiaceae), Ana Maria Giulietti (Eriocaulaceae), G. Prance (Chrysobalanaceae), Maria Iracema Bezerra Loiola (Erythroxylaceae and Combretaceae), Armando Cervi ( Passifloraceae ), Genise Somner (Sapindaceae) and André Amorim (Malpighiaceae).

A general checklist of the flora of Paraíba was elaborated and, up to know, the monographs of Anonnaceae, Humiriaceae, Loganiaceae, Olacaceae; Schwenckia-(Solanaceae), Sidastrum (Malvaceae), Tillandsia (Bromeliaceae) were published (see references). Taxonomic treatments in Rubiaceae, Myrtaceae, Malpighiaceae, Orchidaceae, Solanaceae, Polygalaceae, Turneraceae, Malvaceae, Bromeliaceae, Rhamnaceae, Phytolaccaceae, Erythroxylaceae and Combretaceae are being prepared. Besides that, three new species have been described based on specimens collected in Paraíba (e.g. Solanum jabrense – Solanaceae).

To elaborate the monographs other herbaria are being consulted, like IPA herbarium, which has a good collection of plants from Paraíba, including the Luetzelburg collection.

Systematic samplings have been carried out in several reserves (REBIO Guaribas, RPPNs Fazenda Almas and Fazenda Pacatuba, State Parks of Pedra da Boca , Pico do Jabre and Pau-Ferro and ESEC of Pau-Brasil) but other areas have also been visited.

Regarding the formation of human resources (see detail), 19 undergraduate monographs have been defended, five master degree students, two doctoral student have begun their advisement and two other graduated students have started a co-advisement stage.

Although the Project is not receiving specific financial support by now, it has been able to maintain its activities thanks to articulation with other ongoing projects like IMSEAR (Chapter 1), PROBIO/Caatinga and PPBIO of the Semi-arid (Chapter 2).

 www.umbuzeiro.cnip.org.br/db/pnechk/check.html