The eighth volume of the collection Phanerogamic Flora of the State of São Paulo, coordinated by professor Ana Tozzi, from the Biology Institute (IB) at Unicamp, was launched in a ceremony at the IB library held on Friday (2). The project is hosted by the Botany Institute of the São Paulo State Department of the Environment with the participation of several institutions, including Unicamp. The eighth volume is the first in digital format and covers the legume family, covering 522 species.
According to the IB teacher, “phanerogamic” are plants that produce seeds. The species of the family Leguminosae which include foods such as beans, soybeans, peanuts, peas or lupins, also include widely used noble woods such as rosewood, angelim, cumaru, or even the tree that gave rise to the country's name, Pau-Brasil.
The legume family is one of the most diverse in Brazil. With this volume, the collection reached 50% of the species estimated in the State of São Paulo. “In this work we have keys to identifying the species, descriptions, botanical illustrations, comments on where they occur, what environment they occur in”, explains Ana Tozzi.
The professor also stated that the publication is an important update of knowledge in the area of plant taxonomy, “even more so here in Brazil where we have one of the greatest biodiversity in the world but also one of the floras most threatened with extinction.”
The representative of the Botany Institute, Emerson Alves da Silva, highlighted that the institution's mission is to generate and make knowledge available by providing support for public environmental policies in the State of São Paulo. “The phanerogamic flora project is one of the decisive works in fulfilling this mission. The volume of information made available supports lists of species threatened with extinction, lists of species recommended for the restoration of degraded areas and resolutions that regulate the use of the environment in the State of São Paulo."
The publication launch ceremony was also attended by the acting director of the IB, Marcelo Brocchi, the coordinator of the Biota-Fapesp program Carlos Joly, the researcher Maria das Graças Lapa Wanderley, from the Botany Institute, and the vice-rector of Unicamp University Development, Leandro Palermo Júnior.
The "Phanerogamic Flora of the State of São Paulo" Project began in 1994, coordinated by professor Hermógenes de Freitas Leitão Filho, from Unicamp, who died in 1996, when researcher Maria das Graças Lapa Wanderley took over. In 2014, coordination passed to Inês Cordeiro. There are still seven more volumes left to complete the collection.
Regarding the project, Maria das Graças commented that “all herbaria in the state were participants and not just one institution." The work also went beyond the State. “We have a botanical family in Brazil that integrates several research institutes and many students worked on the project for him to get to where he is. I think the flora of the state of São Paulo is an example for the knowledge of Brazilian biodiversity."
