Maria Beatriz Rossi Caruzo

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Federal University of São Paulo

Croton section Barhamia is one of the largest sections of the genus, with about 80 species found in the West Indies, Central and South America, with its greatest diversity in Brazil. Section Barhamia is subdivided into five subsections, including subsection Barhamia. During taxonomic studies of subsection Barhamia in Brazil, we came across some nom...

The Neotropic is known as the most botanically species-rich region, and Croton is one of the richest angiosperm genera in this region. Here, we describe and illustrate a new species of Croton from the “Parque Estadual do Cantão,” located in state of Tocantins state, northern Brazil. The new species is classified based on morphological, anatomical a...

The genus Magnolia (Magnoliaceae) has a wide and disjunct geographic distribution ranging from Eastern and South Asia to Malaysia, extending across the Neartics and reaching into the Neotropics. Regarding its infrageneric classification, the genus is divided into three subgenera: Yulania , Gynopodium and Magnolia , the latter including the section...

Trichomes are key functional traits that protect plants against abiotic stresses, herbivores and pathogens. In addition to their ecological roles, trichomes show high morphological variability in many lineages, providing useful characters for species characterization and taxon delimitation. Here, we focus on trichomes in Croton, a megadiverse genus...

Croton L. é o segundo maior gênero de Euphorbiaceae, com aproximadamente 1200 espécies distribuídas, principalmente, pelas regiões tropicais de todo o mundo (Govaerts et al. 2000, van Ee et al. 2011). O Brasil é considerado o maior centro de diversidade do gênero, com cerca de 300 espécies reconhecidas para o país (Caruzo et al. 2020). Atualmente,...

We describe and illustrate Croton restingae Sodré & Riina sp. nov., a new species endemic to a restricted area in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, characterized by a particular type of vegetation of the Atlantic Forest known as restinga. The new species belongs to Croton sect. Adenophylli subsect. Laceratoglandulosus, which is supported by morp...

Crotoneae are one of the largest tribes within Euphorbiaceae with great diversity in Brazil, especially the genus Croton with about 300 species in the country. In this contribution, we present a synopsis of Crotoneae in Distrito Federal, located in central Brazil, where the Cerrado is the prevalent phytogeographic domain. The study is based mainly...

Croton is a megadiverse pantropical genus with about 1200 species. The genus can be easily recognized by a set of characters that include indumentum of stellate or lepidote trichomes, colored or clear latex, leaves often with nectary glands, and terminal inflorescences. We focus on the State of Paraná in southern Brazil, where we identified a gap i...

A critical taxonomic and nomenclatural review of the Brazilian species of Acalypha (Euphorbiaceae, Acalyphoideae) is presented. As a result, 40 species (44 taxa including six subspecies) are accepted, 37 of them native (17 endemic) and three introduced; also, 132 names are considered synonyms, 28 of them for the first time. Two new combinations are...

Croton guaritensis, sp. nov. is here described, illustrated, and classified based on morphological and molecular data. The new species is restricted to the Pampa biome where it grows around rocky outcrops. Examination of the morphology from herbarium collections and field observations, as well as evidence from molecular analysis, indicate that Crot...

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...

Este tratamento é composto pelos seguintes táxons: Euphorbiaceae, Acalypha, Actinostemon, Adelia, Adenophaedra, Alchornea, Alchorneopsis, Aleurites, Algernonia, Angostylis, Anomalocalyx, Aparisthmium, Astraea, Astrococcus, Bernardia, Bia, Brasiliocroton, Caperonia, Caryodendron, Chiropetalum, Cleidion, Cnidoscolus, Codiaeum, Colliguaja, Conceveiba,...

A revised assessment of Croton L. sect. Geiseleria (A. Gray) Baill. is provided. The section as now circumscribed includes 84 species ranging across warm areas of the Americas. A nuclear ITS phylogeny of 150 accessions from 83 species and a chloroplast trnL-F phylogeny of 89 accessions from 65 species were generated to confirm correct phylogenetic...

Croton is one of the largest angiosperm genera, with > 1200 species in the tropics worldwide. The arborescent Croton section Cleodora stands out for its disjunct geographical distribution with two main centres of diversity in the Amazonian and Atlantic Forest regions, separated by the Caatinga, Cerrado and Chaco biomes (the ‘Dry Diagonal’). This di...

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...

In this work, we provide a taxonomic treatment of Croton species from Itatiaia National Park - INP. The taxonomic study was based on herbarium collections, besides fieldwork to understand the morphological variability of the species. We have recorded seven species of Croton at the INP: C. alchorneicarpus, C. campanulatus, C. dichrous, C. floribundu...

Historically, women have been subjected to the rules of patriarchal society and the unfair assignments of a sexual division of labor. A female transition from the household to join the workforce did not come with equal division of labor at home, which has been occurring recently on a small scale. In the field of Science, women have always had to fa...

Euphorbiaceae is one of the richest families in the State of São Paulo, with 37 genera and around 150 species. A synopsis of Astraea was published as part of the treatment for the tribe Crotoneae, but recent taxonomic and systematic advances have brought a more refined knowledge about the genus, especially for the widespread Astraea lobata. This sp...

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...

Ongoing studies of Neotropical Euphorbiaceae have uncovered a surprising number of new species belonging to Croton L. sect. Cleodora (Klotzsch) Baill., one of the better studied clades in the genus. Here we describe six new species and reclassify three others that were either misplaced to section or regarded as species of unknown phylogenetic affin...

An updated checklist of the families Euphorbiaceae s.str., Phyllanthaceae and Peraceae from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul is presented based on data from Lista das Espécies do Brasil, collections of several herbaria and floras and revisions available. For each taxon is cited a voucher specimen from MS, its area of occurrence (Cerrado, Chaco, Pant...

Croton longicarpus (Euphorbiaceae), a new species from southern Brazil, is here described and illustrated. The new species occurs in open vegetation and at the edges of Araucaria forest. The analysis of herbarium collections and observations from populations in the field indicate that the species has characters in common with members of Croton sect...

We conducted fieldwork and herbarium research to investigate the morphological diversity, taxonomy, and geographic distribution of arborescent lineages of tribe Crotoneae (Euphorbiaceae) in the Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest domain, a neotropical region considered one of the world’s hot spots of biodiversity. We found that arborescent lineages of C...

Croton ichthygaster is a rare shrubby species from the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. We collected new specimens from a recently found population in Santa Catarina. This allowed us to record previously unknown morphological characters for the species and infer its sectional placement in the current Croton classification, na...

Several types of non-glandular trichomes have been reported in tribe Crotoneae, especially in the genus Croton L.. The current classification of Croton trichomes, proposed by G. L. Webster et al. in 1996, was based on a reduced taxon sampling and for this reason it does not cover all existing types. In addition, overlapping descriptive parameters h...

Synopsis of the genus Acalypha L. (Euphorbiaceae) in the State of São Paulo, Brazil). Euphorbiaceae is one of the largest families of angiosperms, with 246 genera and approximately 6300 species distributed worldwide. Acalypha is the third largest genus of this family, including about 450 species and with a pantropical distribution. This work was ba...

While studying Croton material collected in Espírito Santo, we found several specimens of Croton sapiifolius, a species previously restricted to the State of Bahia. The present paper updates our knowledge about the taxonomy, habitat and geographic distribution of C. sapiifolius. This finding increases the number of known Croton species occurring in...

Croton macrobothrys subsp. septentrionalis, a new subspecies of section Cyclostigma from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, is here described and illustrated. It occurs in moist forests between 100–1000 m of elevation in the states of Bahia, Alagoas, and NE Minas Gerais. Given this new finding, we expand the morphological delineation of Croton macrobot...

An updated inventory of Brazilian seed plants is presented and offers important insights into the country’s biodiversity. This work started in 2010, with the publication of the Plants and Fungi Catalogue, and has been updated since by more than 430 specialists working online. Brazil is home to 32,086 native Angiosperms and 23 native Gymnosperms, sh...

An updated inventory of Brazilian seed plants is presented and offers important insights into the country’s biodiversity. This work started in 2010, with the publication of the Plants and Fungi Catalogue, and has been updated since by more than 430 specialists working online. Brazil is home to 32,086 native Angiosperms and 23 native Gymnosperms, sh...

Euphorbia L., with around 2000 species, is the biggest genus of Euphorbiaceae and one of the largest and most diverse genera within Angiosperms. It shows an almost cosmopolitan distribution and notable morphological diversity and is characterized by a pseudanthial inflorescence, the cyathium, which is unique to the genus. Along with its great morph...

Croton is the second largest genus of Euphorbiaceae with about 1200 species worldwide. Brazil has around 350 species of Croton in all kinds of habitats, but with a great number of species concentrated in the eastern part of the country. The present work increases the number of Croton species in São Paulo to 38, due to our recent discovery of Croton...

• Phylogenetic and morphological studies have helped clarify the systematics of large and complex groups such as the tribe Crotoneae (Euphorbiaceae). However, very little is known about the diversity, structure, and function of anatomical features in this tribe. Crotoneae comprises the species-rich pantropical genus Croton and six small neotropical...

A tribo Alchorneae está representada no Estado de São Paulo pelos gêneros Aparisthmium, monotípico, e Alchornea, com três espécies. São apresentadas chaves de identificação para os gêneros e espécies, informações sobre fenofases, distribuição geográfica, vegetação de ocorrência e comentários taxonômicos sobre as espécies.

Euphorbia is the largest genus of Euphorbiaceae and is among the giant genera of Angiosperms. In the state of São Paulo, the genus is represented by 23 species occurring in savannas, high altitude fields, and anthropic areas. This work includes an identification key, photographs, and comments on morphology, habitat, and geographical distribution. W...

Astraea Klotzsch (1841: 194) was considered a synonym of Croton Linnaeus (1753: 1004) by many authors (Baillon 1858, Muller 1866, Pax & Hoffmann 1931, Webster 1994, Radcliffe-Smith 2001), but based on a molecular phylogenetic study of Croton and related groups, Berry et al. (2005a) justified recognizing Astraea again as a valid genus. De-Paula et a...

Croton section Cleodora is a Neotropical section disjunctly distributed in Mexico and Central America, northern and northwestern South America, and eastern Brazil. Eighteen species are recognized as belonging to the section, which is characterized mainly by an arborescent or shrubby habit, presence of clear or reddish latex, leaves with a pair of b...

The Euphorbiaceae sensu lato are distributed mainly in the tropics, in various types of vegetation and habitats, being one of the largest, most complex and diverse families of angiosperms. It has recently been divided into four families, according to classification systems based on molecular phylogeny: Euphorbiaceae sensu stricto, Phyllanthaceae, P...

Phylogenetic relationships of Croton section Cleodora (Klotzsch) Baill. were evaluated using the nuclear ribosomal ITS and the chloroplast trnL-F and trnH-psbA regions. Our results show a strongly supported clade containing most previously recognized section Cleodora species, plus some other species morphologically similar to them. Two morphologica...

Information and download in personal website of the fourth author: http://camayal.info/biblio/Maya-L_2011b.htm

No presente trabalho foram testados o monofiletismo e relações filogenéticas de Croton sect. Cleodora (Klotzsch) Baill. (Euphorbiaceae s.s.) utilizando-se sequências da região nuclear ITS e das regiões plastidiais trnL-F e trnH-psbA (capítulo 1). Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que a seção, em sua delimitação tradicional, não é monofilética e po...

Croton rufolepidotus Caruzo & Riina (Euphorbiaceae s. str.), a new species from Colombia, is here described and illustrated. The new species is endemic to an area of lowland secondary forests in Antioquia. Morphological characters indicate that this species belongs to Croton sect. Cleodora (Klotzsch) Baill. due to its arborescent habit, petiolar gl...

Croton stellatoferrugineus, a new species from Brazil, is here described and illustrated. This new species is endemic to dry forests at the base of “Pico do Itambé”, the highest point of the Espinhaço range, in Minas Gerais State, occurring at 700–900 m elevation. Croton stellatoferrugineus presents morphological features consistent with its inclus...