A missing piece is found: a new species of (Poales, Eriocaulaceae) and the puzzling relations of the campos rupestres mountaintop floras of eastern Minas Gerais, Brazil.

is a diverse genus characteristic of the campos rupestres, a megadiverse vegetation found on mountaintops of mainly quartzitic mountain ranges of central-eastern Brazil. Recent efforts on prospecting the biodiversity of Serra do Padre Ângelo, a small mountain complex in eastern Minas Gerais, yielded several new plant and animal species, highlighting the urgency of conservation actions towards this still unprotected area. Here, we describe yet another new species found in the campos rupestres of these mountains, , a mountaintop microendemic species morphologically similar to taxa found in the Espinhaço Range, over 200 km distant, a biogeographic pattern shared by several other species.

Global analysis of Poales diversification - parallel evolution in space and time into open and closed habitats.

Poales are one of the most species-rich, ecologically and economically important orders of plants and often characterise open habitats, enabled by unique suites of traits. We test six hypotheses regarding the evolution and assembly of Poales in open and closed habitats throughout the world, and examine whether diversification patterns demonstrate parallel evolution. We sampled 42% of Poales species and obtained taxonomic and biogeographic data from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants database, which was combined with open/closed habitat data scored by taxonomic experts.

Hidden biodiversity of Amazonian white-sand ecosystems: two distinctive new species of (Lentibulariaceae) from Pará, Brazil.

As deforestation and fire move forward over pristine vegetation in the Amazon, many species remain undiscovered and may be threatened with extinction before being described. Here, we describe two new species of (Lentibulariaceae) collected during recent fieldwork in an area of white-sand vegetation in the eastern Amazon Basin named Campos do Ariramba. Further herbarium revision revealed that both species were first collected over 60 years ago in the same area, remaining unnamed until now.

Iron islands in the Amazon: investigating plant beta diversity of canga outcrops.

The world's largest mineral iron province, Serra dos Carajás, is home to an open vegetation known as canga, found on top of isolated outcrops rising out of the Amazon rainforest. Over one thousand vascular plants species have been recorded in these canga sites, including 38 edaphic endemics. A new survey adds to our investigation of biogeographic relationships between sixteen canga outcrops and the effect of the distance between site pairs on the number of shared species, regional species turnover and species distribution patterns.