Two new records of endemic and endangered angiosperms in Santa Catarina , Brazil

The two endemic, endangered species, Bacch­ aris hypericifolia (Asteraceae) and Hypericum salvadorense (Hypericaceae), were known only for the Rio Grande do Sul state, in Brazil. In this paper we report two new occurrences of these species in Santa Catarina, expanding their geographic distribution to the north. Baccharis hypericyfolia and H. salvadorense were collected in areas of PPBio (Programa de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade) project. These novelties evidence the presence of knowledge gaps regarding the flora and little collecting effort in the grasslands from Southern Brazil.

Baccharis hypericyfolia Baker and Hypericum salvadorense N.Robson, are two endangered species endemic to southern Brazil.They were known only from Rio Grande do Sul (RS), and given their rarity and threats, both were included as endangered (EN) in the Official List of Threatened Flora of Rio Grande do Sul (FZB/RS Decreto 52,109/2014).Their assessment was made according to IUCN Red List Criteria (IUCN 2014) with regional adjustments using the LIVE (Lista Vermelha) System (http://www.liv.fzb.rs.gov.br/).Undoubtedly the main threat for these two species is habitat loss, mostly due to the expansion of agriculture and forestation in areas where both occur.
The aim of this study is to report two new records for the flora of Santa Catarina (SC) and fill knowledge gaps regarding the grasslands from Southern Brazil.
Vouchers of these new records were incorporated into the herbarium of the Instituto de Ciências Naturais of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (ICN; acronym according to Thiers 2015).Specialized literature and experts on the referred genera were consulted to confirm the species' identifications.The geographic distributions were checked in scientific articles and two databases (speciesLink; Lista de Espécies da Flora do Brasil 2015).For preparation of the map, when there were no specific coordinates cited for prior records of Baccharis and Hypericum, we use the centroid obtained in Global Gazetteer Version 2.3 (http://www.fallingrain.com/world/).
Notes: This is a rare species found in high and humid grasslands of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina (Figure 2).Baccharis hypericifolia resembles Baccharis serrula Sch.Bip.ex Baker and Baccharis axillaris DC., from which it differs by habit and 1-3-veined leaved that are entire or incise-dentate at the apex (Oliveira and Marchiori 2006).The description of B. hypericifolia corresponds to a summary of Oliveira and Marchiori (2006).

Notes oN GeoGraphic DistributioN
Vogel-Ely and Boldrini | Baccharis hypericifolia and Hypericum salvadorense in Santa Catarina do Sul).We also indicate other collection points of this species in Rio Grande do Sul (Table 1).In its natural habitat, we found H. salvadorense growing on rocks, usually on hill tops.Most of these hill tops in southern Brazil are not protected by law anymore (BRAZIL Lei 12,651/2012)  This reports new sites where B. hypericifolia and H. salvadorense are recorded in Brazil.These data are especially important since they expand the known distribution of these two species, which are endemic to the South Brazilian grasslands.Furthermore, both species are in the Red List of Rio Grande do Sul (FZB/ RS Decreto 52,109/2014) and both have less than 10 known locations.According to the Red List of Brazil's flora (Nakajima et al. 2013), B. hypericifolia is categorized as Endangered (EN), while H. salvadorense has not been evaluated.
These data are important for conservation of B. hypericifolia and H. salvadorense because knowledge of their biology, ecology, and especially, distribution (number of locations) is essential for assessing the threats to these species.Thus, if there is a higher number of known locations, the prospects for these species to survive in the wild will also tend to be higher.
Notes: This rupicolous species, rarely terrestrial, is restricted to the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina (Figure 2).Hypericum pedersenii N.Robson (restricted to Rio Grande do Sul) resembles H. salvadorense, from which it can be distinguished by having narrowly elliptic leaves with truncate or attenuate base and equal sepals (Vogel-Ely and Boldrini 2014).
Until now, H. salvadorense was known from Bom Jesus, Montenegro, Porto Alegre and Salvador do Sul in Rio Grande do Sul (Robson 1990).In this study, we report the first record of H. salvadorense from Santa Catarina, expanding its distribution 100 km north (Painel, Santa Catarina), 170 km west (Espumoso, Rio Grande do Sul), 150 km south (Encruzilhada do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul) and 50 km east (Glorinha, Rio Grande
and, therefore, these open habitats have been commonly converted into forestry areas (e.g., Pinus spp., Acacia spp., Eucalyptus spp.and Malus spp.).Forestation is extremely compromising for heliophytic species like H. salvadorense and, probably represent the main threat for this species.
human activities have caused the reduction of wetlands worldwide, resulting in loss of associated biodiversity.As we know, the loss of these ecosystems in South Brazilian grasslands are not different and, therefore, represents a real threat to this species.