Floristics of flowering plants from the understory of Atlantic remnants in central and southern Bahia, Brazil

The Atlantic Rainforest has high species diversity and endemism and is one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. However, the rainforest understory stratum is regarded as the least studied and understood with regards to biodiversity. The aim of our study was to develop an up-to-date checklist of flowering plants collected in 10 Atlantic Rainforest remnants in Southern Bahia, Brazil. The floristic inventory recorded 49 families, 103 genera, and 170 species. The richest families were Rubiaceae (34 spp.), Melastomataceae (16), Bromeliaceae, Poaceae (8 spp.), Cyperaceae, Erythroxylaceae, Marantaceae, Myrtaceae, and Piperaceae (7). We record 10 new state records for Bahia and two new taxonomic novelties (Bertolonia sp. nov. and Palicourea sp. nov.) were discovered. The species composition is very exclusive with 85% of species occurring in only one of the studied areas and 27% being endemic to this biome region.