Sinópsis del género Baccharis L. en las provincias de Loja y Zamora-Chinchipe (Ecuador).

Abstract

Abstract: The genus Baccharis L., one of the most diverse of the tribe Astereae, is characterized by sexual dioecious condition and type pilose nest trichomes. The infrageneric classification has been complex because of the enormous variability of easily visible characters (shape and size of leaves and arrangement of chapters) when compared with less visible and more stable characters (trichomes, chapters and flowers), which are rarely studied. In Ecuador, no taxonomic treatment is available, only the floristic catalogs have contributed to an approximation of the number of species, and recently the World checklist of Baccharis. For the first time in Ecuador, we present a morphological study for the species of Baccharis present in Loja and Zamora-Chinchipe, with the interest of evaluating the importance of morphological characters in the segregation of species. Were measured 54 variables: 34 quantitative and 20 qualitative, with the data were performed multivariate analyzes PCA and PCoA identifying 21 taxa: 15 species, 4 subspecies, 1 variety and 1 species with no name assigned, in addition, were developed a distribution map of the species, taxonomic descriptions and a dichotomous key.