First report of Hippeastrum puniceum (Lam.) Kuntze (Amaryllidaceae) from the state of Maranhão, Brazil, and expansion of the geographical distribution of Alophia drummondii (Graham) R.Foster (Iridaceae) and Rapatea paludosa Aubl. (Rapateaceae)

We report the first record of Hippeastrum puniceum (Lam.) Kuntze in Maranhão and expand the known geographical distributions of Alophia drummondii (Graham) R. Foster and Rapatea paludosa Aubl. in that state. Alophia drummondii and Hippeastrum puniceum were collected in Cerrado fragments in the municipality of Caxias and Rapatea paludosa in a swamp-forest gallery in a transition area between the Amazon region and the Cerrado in the municipality of Morros. Ecological and taxonomic information is included, as well as morphological descriptions, identification keys to species, distribution maps, photographs, and preliminary conservation statuses of these species in Brazil.


Introduction
Brazil stands out by having the most species-rich flora on the planet, with over 35,000 species, of which 18,790 are endemic. However, several regions and states, such as Maranhão, are still undersampled (Flora do Brasil 2020 2022). Taxonomic and floristic studies provide the essential, important information on the origin and geographic distribution of plant species (Rossatto et al. 2008).
We provide the first record of Hippeastrum puniceum (Lam.) Kuntze and expand the known geographic distributions of Alophia drummondii (Graham) R. Foster (Iridaceae) and Rapatea paludosa Aubl. (Rapateaceae) in the state of Maranhão, northeastern Brazil (Fig. 1). We present identification keys to species of Hippeastrum Herb., Alophia Herb., and Rapatea Aubl. in Maranhão, morphological descriptions, photographs, and georeferenced new records of the three species. We also provide preliminary conservation statuses of these species in Brazil.

Methods
Located in the Northeast Region of Brazil, the state of Maranhão has 217 municipalities and occupies an area of 331,983 km². The vegetation has ecotonal characteristics due to its position between the Amazon (Northern Region of Brazil), Cerrado (Midwest Region) and Caatinga (Northeast Region) domains (Muniz 2006). The climate is of the "Am" type according to Köppen climate classification system (Alvares et al. 2013), with an average annual temperature of up to 27 °C and an average annual rainfall of 800-2,800 mm (Martins and Oliveira 2011). There is a dry season (June to December), and a rainy season from January and March (IMESC 2008).
The specimens collected were herborized according to the botanical treatment proposed by Fidalgo and Bononi (1989) and the botanical classification system used was the APG IV (2016). The species were identified with the specialist literature (Dutilh 2005;Alves-Araújo et al. 2009;Candido et al. 2014) and by comparison with material already identified and available online in herbaria (CEN, HUTO, MO, NY, P, RB, UB, UNB; acronyms according to Thiers 2020). The geographic distribution of the species has been reported by Govaerts (2021) and is available online in SpeciesLink (2021), Tropicos (2021), and Flora do Brasil 2020 (2022) databases. The exsiccates were deposited in the Rosa Mochel herbarium (SLUI) of the Universidade Estadual do Maranhão , São Luís, Maranhão.
The maps were produced with QGIS v. 2.18.12 using the SIRGAS 2000 system. The software Adobe Photoshop CS5 v. 12.0 was used to assemble and edit the figures.

Discussion
Our findings of Hippeastrum puniceum (Fig. 2) increase the known geographic distribution of this species. The nearest previously known occurrences nearest collection points (Reflora 2021; SpeciesLink 2021) are approximately 802 km south (Formosa do Rio Preto, Bahia, Brazil), 1,079 km west (Serra do Cachimbo, Pará, Brazil), and 996 km east (São Lourenço da Mata, Pernambuco, Brazil) from where we collected this species. Additionally, our new findings are the first of this species in Maranhão, expanding the geographic distribution of the species and the genus Hippeastrum in the Northeast Region of Brazil. This demonstrates the importance of more collection effort for the documentation of the flora of Maranhão.
Hippeastrum puniceum is widely distributed in the Neotropics (Govaerts et al. 2021) and occurs in several Brazilian states. In Brazil, it is distributed in all phytogeographic domains Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Cerrado, Pampa, and Pantanal and confirmed from the states of Amazonas, Amapá, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Pará, Pernambuco, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, and Santa Catarina, as well as the Distrito Federal according to BFG (2015BFG ( , 2018, Dutilh et al. (2020), and Flora do Brasil 2020(2022. Hippeastrum puniceum occurs in various vegetation formations and environments, such as wet lowlands, plateaus, fields, Cerrado, abandoned cultivation areas, sandbanks, and rocks (Dutilh 2005;Candido et al. 2014). We found this species at the beginning of the rainy season (November and December) on sandy soil in a Cerrado fragment. There was a small population of approximately six flowering individuals, with the presence of leaves and flower buds at different stages of development, which open consecutively.
Using the 249 occurrences of H. puniceum in Brazil (SpeciesLink 2021), including our new record, the species has an EOO of 7,154,200 km 2 and an AOO of 684 km 2 (Fig. 4). Therefore, according to IUCN criteria (IUCN 2012), H. puniceum is preliminarily assessed as Least Concern.
In Brazil, H. puniceum is popularly known as açucena, açucena-laranja, amarílis, cebola-berrante, lírio, lírio-vermelho (Neto and Amaral 2010;Candido et al. 2014;Ribeiro and Boscolo 2018). This species exhibits seasonal leaf loss. It is easy to grow and has showy flowers that are variable in color and so it is occasionally cultivated in domestic gardens in several Brazilian states (Dutilh 2005;Alves-Araújo et al. 2009;Candido et al. 2014). In some countries, it is cultivated for medicinal purposes (Hanelt 2001). In Brazil, only bulbs have been reported to be used in traditional medicine, even though the safety and efficacy of their use have not yet been scientifically proven (Lorenzi and Matos 2008).
We expand the geographic distribution of A. drummondii ( Fig. 3A-C)  Alophia drummondii occurs from the United States of America to South America (Goldblatt and Manning 2008). In Brazil it is known only from Alagoas, Ceará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Maranhão, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, and Bahia, in the northeastern region, where its occurs in areas of Cerrado and Caatinga vegetation (Oliveira et al. 2016;Melo et al. 2018;Eggers and Chauveau 2020;Flora do Brasil 20202022. The conservation status of this species has not yet been evaluated (Eggers and Chauveau 2020;IUCN 2021).
In Maranhão, A. drummondii is known to occur together with A. medusae (Baker) Goldblatt, which is distinguished by the plicated, ensiform or linear leaf blades and the absence of a terminal bract projecting above the ripidia. Integrative taxonomy studies, including samples from throughout the entire distribution of the species, are needed to better understand this taxon (Eggers and Chauveau 2020).
According to Ferreira et al. (2019c), in Maranhão (Sete Irmãos Farm, Cândido Mendes), R. paludosa occurs in small populations in fragmented areas that are constantly altered by human activities. The Maranhense Amazon is the most threatened in Marahnõ and about 76% of its land area has been deforested and the remaining 24% has some level of disturbance (Celentano et al. 2017, 2018; Silva Junior et al. 2020b). Therefore, R. paludosa has likely been affected by deforestation and may be threatened, at least in Maranhão. The population that we found in Morros, which is within in a transitional area with the Cerrado Maranhense, is larger than the Cândido Mendes population observed by Ferreira et al. (2019c). However, the Morros population also is under threat from deforestation and trampling caused by pigs and chickens from nearby rural properties.