Favio Gonzalez

Universidad Nacional de Colombia | UNAL · Instituto de Ciencias Naturales - ICN (Bogotá)

Five Selenicereus species are well-known in the fruit market as dragon fruit, pitahaya, or pitaya. Native to the New World, pitahayas are considered underutilized crops with nutraceutical properties and easily propagated with a distribution that could potentially be extended to dry climates. Our goal is to understand the relationships of wild and c...

2: 257. 1842, nom. cons. Hierbas perennes de porte reducido (de 5 cm de alto o menos), mediano o gigante (de 2 m de alto o más), glabras o pubescentes, monoicas, dioicas o polígamas; rizomas monopodiales postrados, decumbentes o erguidos, generalmente con ápices glandulares y mucilaginosos, carnosos, a veces con estolones simpodiales postrados; lep...

While working on the taxonomic treatment of the family Gunneraceae for the Flora of Argentina, provisional typification for the minute herbaceous species Gunnera lobata and G. magellanica, and the giant herb G. tinctoria, as well as for some of their synonyms, was detected. Here, we designate lectotypes for G. lobata, G. magellanica, G. falklandica...

Aristolochia hypoglauca and A. paulistana (Aristolochiaceae) are two species that inhabit the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. They highly resemble each other especially on the size and overall shape of the caudate perianth, which causes confusion in herbaria determinations. We applied geometric morphometrics (GM) to overcome this taxonomic uncertainty....

Nikolaus J. Jacquin (1727-1817), the first European naturalist to botanize and study plants from present-day Colombia, described numerous species from the Caribbean for the first time, including seven species of Aristolochia. Currently five of them –A. anguicida, A. caudata, A. maxima, A. oblongata and A. pentandra– are valid, and the remaining two...

Flowers of most Aristolochia species possess six stamens and six carpels; however, the c 40 species of subsection Pentandrae, which grow in S United States, Mexico, N Central America, Cuba, and Jamaica, have flowers with five stamens and five carpels. The sister group of this subsection consists of five hexandrous species from subtropical and tempe...

Parasitic plants have evolved independently in 12 Angiosperm orders. Nine of them (Boraginales, Cucurbitales, Ericales, Lamiales, Laurales, Malvales, Santalales, Solanales, and Zygophyllales) are represented in Colombia by 17 families, 44 genera and 246 species, including facultative (37) and obligate (187) hemiparasites, holoexoparasites (19) and...

Background and Aims Tropaeolaceae (Brassicales) comprise ca. 100 species native to South and Central America. Tropaeolaceae flowers have a nectar spur, formed by a late expansion and evagination of the fused proximal region of the perianth (i.e. the floral tube). This spur is formed in the domain of the tube oriented towards the inflorescence axis,...

Se presenta una síntesis de la historia taxonómica de Chalybea y se discuten sus relaciones con Huilaea, mediante la comparación de los caracteres morfológicos relevantes de estos dos géneros. Como resultado, se amplía la descripción de C. corymbifera Naudin y se reduce a la sinonimia de ésta a Huilaea multiflora Mendoza & Prieto

The taxonomic revision of Burmeistera (Campanulaceae, Lobelioideae) in Colombia comprising 57 species (42 of them endemic to the country) is here presented, along with a key for identification, maps of distribution, comments on the habitat, conservation status, phenology, and illustrations. Twenty species are considered as Critically Endangered, mo...

Trichomes are specialized epidermal cells in the aerial plant parts. Trichome development proceeds in three stages, determination of cell fate, specification, and morphogenesis. Most genes responsible for these processes have been identified in the unicellular branched leaf trichomes from the model Arabidopsis thaliana. Less is known about the mole...

Researchers working on evolutionary developmental plant biology are inclined to choose non-model taxa to address how specific features have been acquired during ontogeny and fixed during phylogeny. In this chapter we describe methods to extract RNA, to assemble de-novo transcriptomes, to isolate orthologous genes within gene families, and to evalua...

Aristolochia brachylimba, a new species from Amazonian forests of Peru, is described, illustrated, and discussed with respect to its most similar species, A. stomachoidis Hoehne, from northern, central and eastern Brazil (Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará and Tocantins), and northeastern Argentina (Misiones). The new species di...

Two new occurrences of Aristolochia in Brazil are reported here. Aristolochia cremersii, hitherto known from French Guiana, was collected in Oriximiná/Pará, and A. argentina, with previously known distribution in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, was recorded in Bodoquena/Mato Grosso do Sul. The latter species was identified based on photographic re...

La flora del Santuario de Fauna y Flora de Iguaque, única área protegida de la provincia de Ricaurte, Boyacá, Colombia, representa la extraordinaria diversidad vegetal de la Cordillera Oriental colombiana. Nuestro primer objetivo consiste en reportar 88 novedades para esta flora regional, incluidas once especies de Lycophyta y Monilophyta y 77 espe...

The taxonomy, nomenclature and chorology of the species of Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae) present in Guatemala are updated and discussed with respect to their current infrageneric classification. Specimens of Aristolochia deposited in 46 herbaria were examined for the present research, including specimens collected by the authors. A key to the inf...

The legume tribe Amorpheae comprises eight genera and ca. 240 species exclusive to the New World. We performed parsimony and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses based on sequence data from the nuclear gene CNGC4, the chloroplast trnK/matK genes and the nuclear ribosomal ITS regions. Our goal was to infer the generic-level phylogenetic relation...

The shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiver-sity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxo-nomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impedi...

The shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiver-sity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxo-nomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impedi...

A família Aristolochiaceae é caracterizada principalmente pos serem trepadeiras, ocasionalmente ervas, arbustos ou subarbustos. Folhas alternas (subopostas em Asarum), lâmina inteira ou lobada. Flores dispostas em inflorescência ou mais frequentemente isoladas. Perigônio uniseriado (bisseriado em Saruma), gamossépalo, 1–6-mero, actinomorfo ou zigom...

Aragoa, comprising 19 high-altitude North Andean species, is one of three genera in the Plantagineae (Plantaginaceae, Lamiales), along with Littorella and Plantago. Based primarily on plastid data and nuclear ITS, Aragoa is sister to a clade of Littorella + Plantago, but Plantagineae relationships have yet to be assessed using multigene datasets fr...

The work presents an identification key for the species of the genus Aristolochia L. (Aristolochiaceae) of the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, as well as morphological descriptions, taxonomic and phytogeographic comments, and detailed photographs of Aristolochia chiquitensis Duch., A. goudotii Duch. and A. hoehneana O.C.Schmidt. These three species a...

Premise: Floral spurs are key innovations associated with elaborate pollination mechanisms that have evolved independently several times across angiosperms. Spur formation can shift the floral symmetry from radial to bilateral, as it is the case in Tropaeolum, the only member of the Brassicales with floral nectar spurs. The genetic mechanisms unde...

Tribe Plantagineae (Plantaginaceae) comprises ∼270 species in three currently recognized genera (Aragoa, Littorella, Plantago), of which Plantago is most speciose. Plantago plastomes exhibit several atypical features including large inversions, expansions of the inverted repeat, increased repetitiveness, intron losses, and gene-specific increases i...

Abstract. Flowers in the Antidaphne genus are among the smallest in family Santalaceae.We traced the development and morphology of flowers in A. viscoidea and compared them with those in other members of the family. Both staminate and carpellate inflorescences proliferate through collateral and serial buds, and become dimorphic when fully elongated...

Flavonoids, carotenoids, betalains, and chlorophylls are the plant pigments responsible for floral color. Anthocyanins, a class of flavonoids, are largely responsible for the red, purple, pink, and blue colors. R2R3-MYB genes belonging to subgroup 6 (SG6) are the upstream regulatory factors of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. The canonical mem...

Background and Aims The epidermis constitutes the outermost tissue of the plant body. Although it plays major structural, physiological, and ecological roles in embryophytes, the molecular mechanisms controlling epidermal cell fate, differentiation, and trichome development is scarce across angiosperms, and almost unexplored in floral organs. Meth...

The urge to organise the world around us is an essential part of human nature. Naming and categorising enable us to store and access information ef ciently. The need to name and categorise extends to the natural world and, in particular, to living organisms. The science underpinning this area of knowledge is called Taxonomy, and is as old as humani...

Burmeistera andakiana and B. boyacensis are described as new species primarily from the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. The first species, closely related to B. brachyandra and B. ramosa, grows in sub-Andean forests at the eastern slopes of the Cordillera in the departments of Caquetá and Putumayo, with a few lowland populations, being the only Col...

Aristolochia wankeana (Aristolochiaceae), a new species from French Guiana and Guyana, is described and illustrated here. Floral traits, primarily of the shape and size of the perianth limb, examined through a morphometric geometric analysis, are diagnostic to distinguish the new species from its relatives A. cornuta and A. iquitensis. The species...

The family Apodanthaceae comprises two genera (Apodanthes and Pilostyles) and 11 endoparasitic species, all of them lacking root and shoot apical meristems, stems, and leaves. Their vegetative phase is reduced to a mycelium-like endophyte formed by strands of parenchyma cells that are in close contact to the host vasculature. These plants become ap...

Controlled spatiotemporal cell division and expansion are responsible for floral bilateral symmetry. Genetic studies have pointed to class II TCP genes as major regulators of cell division and floral patterning in model core eudicots. Here we study their evolution in perianth‐bearing Piperales and their expression in Aristolochia, a rare occurrence...

Dalea es el único género de la tribu Amorpheae (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae) presente en Colombia. El género comprende 172 especies, de las cuales cinco se encuentran en bosques y matorrales secos del país. Se presenta el tratamiento taxonómico de Dalea para la flora de Colombia, realizado a partir de trabajo de herbario, de campo y de laboratorio....

Background: In Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae) flowers, the congenital fusion of the anthers and the commissural, stigmatic lobes forms a gynostemium. Although the molecular bases associated to the apical-basal gynoecium patterning have been described in eudicots, comparative expression studies of the style and stigma regulatory genes have never b...

Se describe e ilustra Dalea wilsonii, una especie nueva de la tribu Amorpheae (Leguminosae) de Colombia que crece en bosques secos del municipio de Baraya (Huila) y del valle del río Juanambú, en el municipio de Buesaco (Nariño). La nueva especie, afín a D. carthagenensis, se caracteriza por la ausencia de glándulas intrapeciolulares en el raquis (...

Holoparasitism has led to extreme plastome reduction. Plastomes in the legume holoparasite Pilostyles (Apodanthaceae) are the most reduced in both size and gene content known so far in Embryophytes. Here, we found that the Pilostyles boyacensis plastome, the only American species sequenced so far, is reduced to seven functional genes, accD, rpl2, r...

Premise of research. The New World Loranthaceae correspond to a polyphyletic assembly of hemiparasites that exhibit a high floral diversity in terms of size, merism, groundplan, symmetry, and pollination strategies. Homology assessment as well as evolution of floral traits and ontogenetic pathways related to calyx, corolla, and androecium in the fa...

The poorly known Aristolochia vitiensis is one of the few species of the genus that inhabits SW Pacific Islands. Here we revisit and complement the description of this Fijian endemic. Our study indicates that the species belongs to the subgenus Aristolochia sect. Diplolobus subsect. Euaristolochia. The trifid apex of the perianth is unique among th...

Premise of the study: Bilateral symmetry in core eudicot flowers is established by the differential expression of CYCLOIDEA (CYC), DICHOTOMA (DICH), and RADIALIS (RAD), which are restricted to the dorsal portion of the flower, and DIVARICATA (DIV), restricted to the ventral and lateral petals. Little is known regarding the evolution of these gene...

Aristolochia species possess a unique sepal-derived petaloid kettle-shaped perianth with distinctive features and epidermal cell types that likely promote pollination. Epidermal cell fate, proliferation, and specialization as well as perianth elaboration have been well studied in core eudicot model species, but little information is available in ea...

We describe and illustrateAristolochia lorenae, a new species found in the state of Pará, Brazil. The new species is assigned to subseries AnthocaulicaeF. Gonz´alez, which is characterized by the presence of extremely short cauliflorous and/or ramiflorous racemes that have shortened internodes and flowers subtended by a small bract. We provide a ta...

Floral identity MADS‐box A, B, C, D, E, and AGL6 class genes are predominantly single copy in Magnoliids, and predate the whole genome duplication (WGD) events in monocots and eudicots. By comparison with the model species Arabidopsis thaliana, the expression patterns of B‐, C‐, and D‐class genes in stamen, carpel, and ovules are conserved in Arist...

The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) was established by the Conference of Parties in 2002 to decrease the loss of plant diversity, reduce poverty and contribute to sustainable development. To achieve this overarching goal, the GSPC has established a series of targets, one of which is to ensure that plant diversity is well understood, s...

Aristolochia mishuyacensis is recorded for the first time in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Two specimens were collected in two banks of black water tributaries of the Yasuní river, Yasuní National Park. This species is currently distributed in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, below 200 m. An updated description and images of the species are p...

Burmeistera villosa (Campanulaceae-Lobelioideae), a new vestured species from the Chocó/Valle del Cauca border region, is described and illustrated, and its affinities are discussed. The species is a small, unbranched herb that stands out from other species by its densely villous indument that covers all its organs, and the narrow, nearly straight...

Burmeistera fistulosa and B. reclinata, both from the department of Antioquia (Colombia), are here described and illustrated. The first species is similar to B. tomentosula, from which it differs by the glabrous surfaces, the petiole 1.4–2 cm long, the lamina elliptic to ovate, the reduced subtending leaves, the calyx lobes 2.5–3.5 x 0.8–1.2 mm, th...

Floral diversification in Loranthaceae reaches its highest peak in the Andes. The flowers of the exclusively Andean genus Tristerix exhibit tubular and vividly coloured flowers pollinated by hummingbirds. We studied inflorescence and flower morphoanatomy of the two Colombian species, T. longebracteatus and the highly endangered T. secundus. Both sp...

Background and Aims: The taxonomy of the Panamanian species of Aristolochia is revised 57 years after the first treatment of the genus for the Flora of Panama. The taxonomic, nomenclatural and chorological novelties of the species present in Panama are updated and discussed with respect to the current infrageneric classification. Methods: Specimens...

Zinowiewia sebastianii, una nueva especie del bosque altoandino de la Cordillera Oriental de Colombia, en el departamento de Boyacá (Colombia) es descrita e ilustrada, y sus afinidades taxonómicas son discutidas. Los individuos de la nueva especie son arbustos hasta de 5 m alto, con estípulas interpeciolares laciniadas, lámina foliar con 8-11 pares...

Se describe e ilustra una especie nueva de Aristolochia perteneciente a la serie Thyrsicae, un grupo monofilético de 19 especies distribuidas desde México hasta Bolivia y centro del Brasil. Hasta ahora, los únicos especímenes conocidos de la nueva especie han sido recolectados en la región central del departamento del Chocó, Colombia. Además, se pr...

Premise of research. The Apodanthaceae, the only parasitic lineage within the order Cucurbitales, comprises one species of Apodanthes and 12 species of Pilostyles, parasitizing Salicaceae, and legume stems, respectively. All species are achlorophyllous and holoparasitic, with a mycelium-like endophyte. Although flowers, fruits, and seeds are the on...

The Brazilian botanist F. C. Hoehne contributed to the knowledge of several families, mainly Orchidaceae and Aristolochiaceae. In Aristolochia, he published 29 new species, six varieties/subspecies, most of them without formal designation of holotypes, and four combinations at specific or infraspecific level. Herein, taxonomic novelties, including...

Psittacanthus is one of the few genera of Loranthaceae that has been described as lacking endosperm and developing polycotyledonous embryos. Based on the study of seeds and seedlings of 12 species of Psittacanthus, we demonstrate that the embryo has two leafy cotyledons surrounded by a massive, compound, starchy, chlorophyllous endosperm, as in mos...

Premise of the study: Loranthaceae, Santalaceae, and Viscaceae are the most diversified hemiparasitic families of Santalales in the Andes. Their partial inflorescences (PIs) vary from solitary flowers, or dichasia in most Santalales, to congested floral groups along articles in most Viscaceae. The atypical articled inflorescences in Phoradendreae...

Plant evolution has been shaped by key morphological and developmental novelties that have improved plant’s fitness as terrestrial organisms. Here we describe and discuss some of these traits in an evo-devo context, emphasizing those that have allowed seed plants, and especially flowering plants, to diversify and become dominant on Earth. Flowers a...

Psittacanthus corderoi F. González, F. J. Roldán & Pabón-Mora, a species from the department of Amazonas, Colombia, is here described and illustrated for the first time. The new species is similar to P. lasianthus Sandwith, from Guyana and Venezuela, but it differs by various vegetative and floral traits. The most conspicuous diagnostic trait is th...

In parasitic plants, the reduction in plastid genome (plastome) size and content is driven predominantly by the loss of photosynthetic genes. The first completed mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) from parasitic mistletoes also exhibit significant degradation, but the generality of this observation for other parasitic plants is unclear. We sequenc...

Background Bocconia and Macleaya are the only genera of the poppy family (Papaveraceae) lacking petals; however, the developmental and genetic processes underlying such evolutionary shift have not yet been studied. Results We studied floral development in two species of petal-less poppies Bocconiafrutescens and Macleayacordata as well as in the cl...

Aristolochia fimbriata (Aristolochiaceae) is a member of an early diverging lineage of flowering plants and a promising candidate for evo-devo studies. Aristolochia flowers exhibit a unique floral synorganization that consists of a monosymmetric and petaloid calyx formed by three congenitally fused sepals, and a gynostemium formed by the congenital...

Premise of research. Loranthaceae flowers exhibit exceedingly variable ground plan, size, and pollination syndromes. The homology of floral organs (especially the calyculus and the perianth), the evolutionary shifts from bisexual to unisexual flowers, and the trends in ovary and ovule reduction, primarily studied in Old World taxa, have been contro...

Famous for its blind cavefish and Darwin's finches, Latin America is home to some of the richest biodiversity hotspots of our planet. The Latin American fauna and flora inspired and captivated naturalists from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including such notable pioneers such as Fritz Müller, Florentino Ameghino, and Léon Croizat who made...

El concepto de especies bandera ha sido empleado en proyectos de conservación por 50 años. Se proponen aquí cinco especies nativas de la Isla de San Andrés como especies bandera para la conservación de los pocos remanentes de manglar en esta Isla: Bontia daphnoides (Myoporaceae), Canella winterana (Canellaceae), Eustoma exaltatum (Gentianaceae), Rh...

Taxonomic, nomenclatural and typification issues regarding Aristolochia chrysochlora Barb. Rodr., A. echinata Barb. Rodr. and A. silvatica Barb. Rodr. (Aristolochiaceae) are discussed. The lectotypes are designated based on the illustrations made by J. Barbosa Rodrigues, and published next to the corresponding protologues. Additionally, A. chrysoch...

Aristolochia zebrina is described, illustrated and discussed in comparison with the two most similar species, A. papillaris Mast. and A. tamnifolia (Klotzsch) Duch. The new species is distinguished from its relatives mainly by the ellipsoid utricle, the narrowly ovate, revolute, and efimbriate floral limb with dark purple longitudinal stripes insid...

Aristolochia fimbriata (Aristolochiaceae: Piperales) exhibits highly synorganized flowers with a single convoluted structure forming a petaloid perianth that surrounds the gynostemium, putatively formed by the congenital fusion between stamens and the upper portion of the carpels. Here we present the flower development and morphology of A. fimbriat...

The genus Burmeistera, described by J. J. Triana in 1854, was typified with the species B. ibaguensis. The type specimen of this species consists of three fragments, two of which correspond to the type species and the third fragment belongs to B. rivina. Here we clarify the typification of the genus and the two species mentioned, and revise the des...

The monospecific fern genus Nephopteris is restricted to four páramos in Colombia. Until now, its phylogenetic relationships have not been clarified, although morphological traits suggest that it belongs to the taenitidoid clade of the subfamily Pteridoideae in the Pteridaceae. We isolated four chloroplast (atpA, chlL, rbcL, and rps4) loci of N. ma...