title: A comprehensive checklist of vascular epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest reveals outstanding endemic rates.
abstract: Knowledge of the geographic distribution of plants is essential to underpin the understanding of global biodiversity patterns. Vascular epiphytes are important components of diversity and functionality of Neotropical forests but, unlike their terrestrial counterparts, they are under-represented in large-scale diversity and biogeographic analyses. This is the case for the Atlantic Forest - one of the most diverse and threatened biomes worldwide. We provide the first comprehensive species list of Atlantic Forest vascular epiphytes; their endemism patterns and threatened species occurrence have also been analyzed. A list with 2,256 species of (hemi-)epiphytes - distributed in 240 genera and 33 families - is presented based on the updated Brazilian Flora Checklist. This represents more than 15% of the total vascular plant richness in the Atlantic Forest. Moreover, 256 species are included on the Brazilian Red List. More than 93% of the overall richness is concentrated in ten families, with 73% represented by Orchidaceae and Bromeliaceae species alone. A total of 78% of epiphytic species are endemic to the Atlantic Forest, in contrast to overall vascular plant endemism in this biome estimated at 57%. Among the non-endemics, 13% of epiphytic species also occur either in the Amazon or in the Cerrado - the other two largest biomes of Brazil - and only 8% are found in two or more Brazilian biomes. This pattern of endemism, in addition to available dated phylogenies of some genera, indicate the dominance of recent radiations of epiphytic groups in the Atlantic Forest, showing that the majority of divergences dating from the Pliocene onwards are similar to those that were recently reported for other Neotropical plants.
authors.affiliation: Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro.
authors.forename: Leandro
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Freitas
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salino
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ensino Superior de Juiz de Fora.
authors.forename: Luiz Menini
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Neto
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará
authors.forename: Thaís
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Elias Almeida
authors.affiliation: Universidade de São Paulo.
authors.forename: Sara Ribeiro
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Mortara
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ensino Superior de Juiz de Fora.
authors.forename: João Renato
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Stehmann
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz e Herbário do Centro de Pesquisas do Cacau.
authors.forename: André Marcio
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Amorim
authors.affiliation: Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro.
authors.forename: Elsie Franklin
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Guimarães
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
authors.forename: Marcus Nadruz
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Coelho
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zanin
authors.affiliation: Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro.
authors.forename: Rafaela Campostrini
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Forzza
keywords: Angiosperms; canopy; ferns; hotspots; life-forms; lycophytes; monocots; tropical forests