Alejandro Zuluaga

University of Valle | UNIVALLE · Department of Biology

Aim Endemic species, characterised by limited geographic ranges, face a high risk of extinction. The neotropical region harbours diverse ecosystems and a substantial number of endemic species, thus identifying areas of high endemism is crucial for protecting unique and threatened species and ecosystems. Vascular epiphytes—nonparasitic plants that g...

Following the IUCN criteria, we assess the risk of extinction for five orchid species recorded for the first time from Colombia: Acianthera viridis (Luer & Hirtz) Luer, Dichaea lankesteri Ames, Epidendrum lavendulum Hágsater, Masdevallia ariasii Luer, and Stenia stenioides (Garay) Dodson & R.Escobar. We propose a preliminary global Red List categorie...

Las epífitas vasculares son componentes taxonómicos y funcionales relevantes en los ecosistemas húmedos, por lo que explorar su diversidad cobra relevancia en los bosques montanos del Valle del Cauca, donde se considera que existe submuestreo de estas plantas. Con el objetivo de caracterizar la diversidad taxonómica y funcional del ensamblaje de ep...

A new species of Xanthosoma of Colombia is described, and two chorological novelties are presented. Xanthosoma alpayacuense and X. viviparum are recorded for the first time in Colombia. Additionally, the distribution and description of X. betancurii are extended. These novelties were recorded from the south of Colombia in the departments of Caquetá...

Besleria, a genus of perennial herbs, shrubs, or small trees growing in the understorey of rainforests, is one of the largest genera of neotropical Gesneriaceae, with over 165 species. Despite the ecological importance and ubiquity of Besleria in rainforest ecosystems, taxonomic and evolutionary studies of Besleria are limited. Here, we generated a...

Phylogenomics enhances our understanding of plant radiations in the biodiverse Andes. Our study focuses on Puya , primarily Andean and a part of the Bromeliaceae family. Using a phylogenomic framework based on the Angiosperms353 probe set for 80 species, we explored Puya ′s phenotypic evolution and biogeography. Divergence time analyses and ancestr...

Orchids constitute one of the most spectacular radiations of flowering plants. However, their origin, spread across the globe, and hotspots of speciation remain uncertain due to the lack of an up‐to‐date phylogeographic analysis. We present a new Orchidaceae phylogeny based on combined high‐throughput and Sanger sequencing data, covering all five s...

Eight new species of Lepanthes from the Farallones National Natural Park in Colombia are described and illustrated. These species are morphologically compared with the most similar species to corroborate their identity. Additionally, each of the eight new species is dedicated to a Colombian woman who has made history in several fields in the countr...

Resumen El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar un listado de especies de hongos liquenizados para el Valle del Cauca. Se realizó la búsqueda de registros de especies de hongos liquenizados para el Valle del Cauca depositados en los herbarios CUVC, TULV, COL, o presentes en artículos científicos, libros y estudios ambientales. Se encontraron 991 e...

The Neotropical realm hosts some of the Earth's most species-rich biodiversity hotspots, with vascular epiphytes significantly contributing to this diversity, regionally accounting for up to 39% of the vascular flora. However, many regions of the Neotropics where epi-phytic species of restricted distribution are reported coincide with threatened ec...

Genéros y especies comunes de Araceae - Gesneriaceae en el piedemonte Andino Amazónico del departamento del Caquetá

What grows where? Knowledge about where to find particular species in nature must have been key to the survival of humans throughout our evolution. Over time, and as people colonised new land masses and habitats, interactions with the local biota led to a wealth of combined traditional and scientific wisdom about the distributions of species and th...

Three new species of Stenospermation from Central Andes in Colombia are described: Stenospermation albifolium Castaño-Rubiano, S. melidae Castaño-Rubiano & Sierra-Giraldo and S. selvaflorensis Castaño-Rubiano, L. Ibañez & A. Zuluaga. The species are distributed in the eastern zone of Caldas and Antioquia departments, in Natural National Park Selva...

El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar un listado de especies de hongos liquenizados para el Valle del Cauca. Se realizó la búsqueda de registros de especies de hongos liquenizados para el Valle del Cauca depositados en los herbarios CUVC, TULV, COL, o presentes en artículos científicos, libros y estudios ambientales. Se encontraron 991 especies...

Orchids constitute one of the most spectacular radiations of flowering plants. However, their geographical origin, historical spread across the globe, and hotspots of speciation remain uncertain due to the lack of a broad phylogenomic framework. ⍰ We present a new Orchidaceae phylogeny based on high-throughput and Sanger sequencing datasets, coveri...

A new species of Pleurothallis from subsection Macrophyllae-Fasciculatae is described and illustrated. The new species is compared with Pleurothallis folsomii from Panama. Pleurothallis celsia is most similar to a group of species with small, yellow flowers but it can be recognized mainly by its lip, which is widely ovate, the surface and margin pi...

A new species of Anthurium sect. Xialophyllium from Caquetá Department, Colombia is herein described and illustrated. The new species has pendent inflorescences with a very elongated stipe, an uncommon character for the genus.

A checklist of Orchidaceae from Caquetá, Colombia is presented here. We recorded 98 genera and 418 species, exceeding a previous inventory by 276 species. The checklist is conservative in the number of genera and species by including only taxa that were fully and reliably identified and that are either linked to a corresponding herbarium voucher, a...

Este estudio analizó las relaciones entre la riqueza de especies-área y la diversidad filogenética-área en la flora relictual del bosque seco tropical en el valle del río Cauca en Colombia, utilizando un listado de especies de 38 relictos de bosque seco. Se encontró que la riqueza de plantas se ajusta al modelo relación especies-área (SAR), aunque...

A new species of Lepanthes from the southwestern Andes of Colombia is described, illustrated and compared with morphologically similar species. The new species was found in two localities in the municipality of San José del Salado, in the department of Valle del Cauca, where several new species have been found and described in the past several year...

As a result of botanical and lichenological expeditions in the Colombian Andean-Amazonian Piedmont, in the Brazilian Amazon, and in Veracruz, Mexico, a new species of Sulzbacheromyces was discovered and is here described based on morphological, anatomical, and molecular characters. S. leucodontium differs from other neotropical species in the genus...

The IUCN Red List assessments of Colombian flora significantly impact national public policy by informing conservation strategies and prioritizing areas for conservation. However, little is known about the distribution, conservation status, or evolutionary history of most Colombian epiphytes, which prevents the development of strategies aimed at th...

La Expedición Binacional a la Biodiversidad de la Cuenda de rio Putumayo entre Perú y Colombia es una oportunidad valiosa para documentar la diversidad biológica de la cuenca media del rio Putumayo y su potencial de uso sostenible, que presenta un estado de conservación ideal con muy poca transformación de coberturas naturales, características que...

The Neotropical realm hosts some of the Earth’s most species-rich biodiversity hotspots, with vascular epiphytes significantly contributing to this diversity. However, many regions of the Neotropics where epiphytic species of restricted distribution are reported coincide with threatened ecosystems, such as the tropical montane cloud forest. Moreove...

Baseline checklists for the Leguminosae (Fabaceae), Araceae and Myrtaceae from the Colombian department of Boyacá are available from the Catalogue of Plants and Lichens of Colombia. These lists were supplemented by thorough herbarium and literature searches by a collaborative group of local and international experts, and further enhanced by local f...

Premise: Recent phylogenetic studies of the Araceae have confirmed the position of the duckweeds nested within the aroids, and the monophyly of a clade containing all the unisexual flowered aroids plus the bisexual-flowered Calla palustris. The main objective of this work was to better resolve the deep phylogenetic relationships among the main lin...

Four new species of Lepanthes from the southwestern Andes of Colombia are described, illustrated, and compared with morphologically similar species. The new species were found in San José del Salado, the Municipality of Dagua, Department of Valle del Cauca where several new species have been found and described in the past years.

José Jerónimo Triana, el botánico de la Comisión Corográfica es una de las más celebres figuras en la historia de la ciencia colombiana. En el marco del proyecto de cooperación internacional con Francia titulado “Triana y Planchon: la historia franco-colombiana de la primera flora de Colombia”, el Instituto de Ciencias Naturales y el Museo Nacional...

A new species of Acianthera from the relict cloud forests of Valle del Cauca, Colombia is described and illustrated. This new species, Acianthera hagsateri, morphologically resembles A. geminicaulina, A. decurrens, and A. erythrogramma, but differs from them by its shorter plants and stems, the elliptic and obtuse smaller leaves, the racemose, 1–3...

The Northern Andean Cordillera in Colombia hosts unique, megadiverse, and fragile ecosystems, including wet tropical lowland, cloud forest, and paramo that are essential for climate regulation and the subsistence of human settlements. The Serrania de Los Paraguas on the Pacific slope of the western range of the Northern Andes, Colombia, is an ecosy...

The genus Monstera is represented in Colombia by 20 species, 12 of them from the Pacific slope of the Andes. Fieldwork between 2017 and 2019 in this region and a thorough revision of the main Colombian herbaria allowed us to discover two undescribed species belonging to Monstera section Monstera. The two new species are described and illustrated us...

El Libro de resúmenes del 1er Simposio Colombiano de Epífitas: diversidad, ecología y conservación, es una publicación que reúne las presentaciones orales y exposiciones de poster derivadas de la investigación y/o experiencias académicas y científicas que se presentaron en el Simposio del mismo nombre entre el 9, 10 y 11 de junio de 2021 en formato...

A new species of Kohleria (Gesneriaceae) is described from the Colombian Andes, in the departments of Huila and Cauca. The new species, Kohleria huilensis, has long been documented from the Merenberg Natural Reserve (La Plata, Huila), but has been confused with K. inaequalis var. inaequalis and K. inaequalis var. ocellata. The new species is distin...

Monstera bocatorensis Croat & M.Cedeño, Monstera donosoensis Croat, M.Cedeño & O.Ortiz, Monstera gigas Croat, Zuluaga, M.Cedeño & O.Ortiz, and Monstera titanum Croat, M.Cedeño & O.Ortiz are newly described from Panama, and illustrated from living material.

Monstera gentryi from Panama and M. mittermeieri from Costa Rica are newly described, illustrated and compared with M. oreophila. The differences between the novelties and similar species are presented and an amended description of M. oreophila is provided. Resumen: Monstera gentryi de Panamá y M. mittermeieri de Costa Rica se describen como nuevas...

Three new species of Lepanthes from the Western Cordillera of the Colombian Andes are described and illustrated. The new species were found during several botanical expeditions to the mountains in San José del Salado, department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia.

Urospatha bogneri Muñoz-Castillo, Zuluaga & A.Hay is described as a new species of Araceae—Lasioideae from the Department of Vaupés in the Colombian Amazon. A brief contextual review of the taxonomic status of its subfamily is provided.

Monstera alcirana, endemic to Panamá, is described and illustrated using a color plate based on photographs of the vegetative and reproductive structures of living material. This species is the fourth of the very small species of Monstera in Central America. It is morphologically similar to M. obliqua, M. minima and M. gambensis but differs by has...

A new species of the genus Besleria (Gesneriaceae), endemic to the department of Cauca, Colombia, is described and illustrated here. The new species, Besleria santaclarensis Clavijo & Sánchez-Taborda, was discovered in the Regional Protective Forest Reserve “Serranía El Pinche”, Cordillera Occidental of the Colombian Andes. B. santaclarensis is dis...

Two species of Monstera, apparently endemic to Costa Rica, are newly described and illustrated. Monstera juliusii occurs in the southern Costa Rican portion of the Cordillera de Talamanca at 1600-2250 m, and has been confused with M. standleyana in herbaria. Monstera monteverdensis occurs in the Guanacaste and Tilarán cordilleras, and the northwest...

A species of each of Anaphyllopsis A.Hay and Bognera Mayo & Nicolson, previously known only from Venezuela and Brazil respectively, are recorded for Colombia for the first time. Anaphyllopsis pinnata A.Hay was found near Río Tiquié, department of Vaupés, and Bognera recondita (Madison) Mayo & Nicolson was found in the district of Taracapá, departme...

Herbivory in Monstera Adans. (Araceae) by adults and larvae of Curculionideae, larvae of Lepidoptera, and ants is documented with photographs.

Monstera deliciosa, one of the most commonly cultivated aroids, is a morphologically variable species and has traditionally been considered native to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama. We demonstrate that M. tacanaensis, which naturally occurs in those four countries and has been considered a synonym of M. deliciosa, is a closely re...

The Kõkõi Eujã Natural Traditional Reserve was created in 2019 to protect the golden poison frog ( Phyllobates terribilis Myers, Daly & Malkin, 1978) in the Cauca Department of Colombia. As part of the biodiversity inventory of the reserve a new species of Anthurium with scandent habit was discovered. The new species is endemic to Colombia and it i...

Four species are documented for the first time for the Costa Rican flora: Anthurium curvispadix, Anthurium palosecense, Monstera integrifolia, Monstera spruceana. Two species are first documented for the Panamanian flora: Monstera costaricensis and Monstera epipremnoides.

The genus Monstera is represented in Mexico by nine species, of which five are reported for the region of Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz. During fieldwork between 2014 and 2019 in Los Tuxtlas, we discovered a previously undescribed species belonging to Sect. Marcgraviopsis and consisting of a third species from Mexico with a pendent habit. The new species M...

Main conclusion This study provides broad insight into the chloroplast genomes of the subfamily Monsteroideae. The identified polymorphic regions may be suitable for designing unique and robust molecular markers for phylogenetic inference. Abstract Monsteroideae is the third largest subfamily (comprises 369 species) and one of the early diverging...

Aroideae is the largest and most diverse subfamily of the plant family Araceae. Despite its agricultural and horticultural importance, the genomic resources are sparse for this subfamily. Here, we report de novo assembled and fully annotated chloroplast genomes of 13 Aroideae species. The quadripartite chloroplast genomes (size range of 158,177–170...

incomplete protogyny, self-pollination, floral scent, Colombia

Two new species of Chlorospatha (section Orientales) from the western slope of the Cordillera Occidental in the departments of Valle del Cauca and Choco (Colombia) are described here. The new species represent the first records of section Orientales for Colombia, which was previously known only from the eastern Andes in Ecuador. The two new species...

A new species of the genus Rhodospatha (Araceae) from the Colombian Amazon is described and illustrated. The new species is restricted to the Caquetá department between 300-520 m altitude, growing mainly as a rheophyte on rocks along small rivers, creeks and waterfalls. This life-form has been not recorded in Rhodospatha before. RESUMEN Se describe...

The subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae) is the third richest clade in the family, with ca. 369 described species and ca. 700 estimated. It comprises mostly hemiepiphytic or epiphytic plants restricted to the tropics, with three intercontinental disjunctions. Using a dataset representing all 12 genera in Monsteroideae (126 taxa), and five plastid and...

A new saxicolous species of Amaryllidaceae tentatively assigned to the tribe Clinantheae, Pamiantheecollis Silverst., Meerow & Sánchez-Taborda, is described from the western slope of the Cordillera Occidental in the department of Cauca, Colombia. The new species differs from the two hitherto known species of Pamianthe in its yellow flowers and in i...

Drymonia croatii, a new species of Gesneriaceae from the Pacific slopes of the Colombian Andes (department of Valle del Cauca) is described and illustrated. Drymonia croatii is similar to D. ovatifolia and D. foliacea; it is differentiated by the following characters: indument on stem and leaves composed of a combination of simple (septate and non-...

Premise of the Study We present the first plastome phylogeny encompassing all 77 monocot families, estimate branch support, and infer monocot‐wide divergence times and rates of species diversification. Methods We conducted maximum likelihood analyses of phylogeny and BAMM studies of diversification rates based on 77 plastid genes across 545 monoco...

The genus Monstera (Araceae) has a history of problematic taxonomy due to the large number of existing names, their incorrect application, and prevalence of incomplete herbarium specimens. Recent field exploration and study of herbarium collections has led to the discovery of several new species of Monstera, especially in Central America. Here we d...

Aim Orchidaceae is the most species‐rich angiosperm family and has one of the broadest distributions. Until now, the lack of a well‐resolved phylogeny has prevented analyses of orchid historical biogeography. In this study, we use such a phylogeny to estimate the geographical spread of orchids, evaluate the importance of different regions in their...

We present the first phylogenomic analysis of relationships among all ten families of Liliales, based on 75 plastid genes from 35 species in 29 genera, and 97 additional plastomes stratified across angiosperm lineages. We used a supermatrix approach to extend our analysis to 58 of 64 genera of Liliales, and calibrated the resulting phylogeny agains...

Orchids are the most diverse family of angiosperms, with over 25 000 species, more than mammals, birds and reptiles combined. Tests of hypotheses to account for such diversity have been stymied by the lack of a fully resolved broad-scale phylogeny. Here, we provide such a phylogeny, based on 75 chloroplast genes for 39 species representing all orch...

As part of a broader phylogenetic study of the subfamily Monsteroideae we used three plastid and one nuclear markers to test the monophyly of the genus Spathiphyllum. Our results support the tribe Spathiphylleae as sister of the remaining Monsteroideae, and the monophyly of Spathiphyllum. The monotypic genus Holochlamys appears nested within Spathi...