Garcia 1. The genus Piptadenia includes approximately 24 species that are distributed in the tropical regions of South America, with centers of diversity in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest in Brazil in which twenty-one species occur. A taxonomic study of Piptadenia was conducted in the state of Minas Gerais based on an analysis of approximately specimens from 11 herbaria, field observations and field work in the main conservation units and other focal areas in Minas Gerais.
These areas include the three vegetation domains in the state: Atlantic Forest, Cerrado and Caatinga. Six of the species in the genus were sampled: P. Two species that have previously been cited in the state were not found in this study: P. These species were not found in the herbaria collections that were consulted or during the field work.
We present an identification key for the Minas Gerais species of Piptadenia as well as descriptions, illustrations, geographical distributions, comments about the taxonomic characters and some information related to the flowering and fruiting periods. Piptadenia Benth. The genus Piptadenia includes approximately 24 species that are distributed in the tropical regions of South America with centers of diversity in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest in Brazil Luckow in which 21 species occur Morim ; BFG Phylogenetic studies have indicated a greater affinity of Piptadenia with Parapiptadenia Brenan, Pseudopiptadenia Rauschert and Plathymenia Benth.
Molecular data have shown that Piptadenia is a polyphyletic genus Luckow et al. Tamashiro , in a taxonomic study of Piptadenia species in southeast Brazil, found four species in Minas Gerais, but the sampling effort in the state was not exhaustive, and taxonomic changes have since occurred in the genus. Oliveira-Filho cited seven species as occurring in the state in a floristic list that was assembled without a taxonomic approach and that only considered trees.
However, none of these studies involved collection, revision and characterization with sampling specifically for Piptadenia. Thus, since the above studies do not present a consensus on this issue, the main goal of this study was to understand the diversity of Piptadenia in Minas Gerais and to confirm the number of species occurring in the state through increased field sampling, morphological characterization and the review of herbaria collections.
