Gunneraceae

Flora Neotopica Monograph 109
by Luis Eduardo Mora-Osejo, Natalia Pabón-Mora, and Favio González

This is volume 109 in the Flora Neotopica series, written in Spanish, with an English abstract.

Gunnera is the only genus in the family Gunneraceae. Although it occurs in Central and South America, Hawaii, SE Africa, Malaya, Tasmania, and New Zealand, the neotropical species represent more than 70% of the total number of species in Gunnera.

The plants are generally giant rosettes, with decumbent or subdecumbent rhizomes; less often, they are small stoloniferous herbs. One of the distinctive characters of Gunnera, which is unique in Angiosperms, consists of endosymbiosis with the cyanobacteria Nostoc punctiforme.

The monograph begins with taxonomic history, morphology, floral biology, reproduction, dispersion, anatomy, caryology, embryology, palynology, phylogeny, biogeography, ecology, symbiosis, conservation, uses, and recommendations for collecting Gunnera.

The systematic treatment of Gunnera in the Americas includes descriptions, nomenclatural notes, illustrations, distribution maps, uses, and local names. Also included are keys to the subgenera, species, and infraspecific taxa.

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