In development of the Flora de Bogotá project, two researchers discovered, classified and published a new species which they named Chaetolepis sumapacensis, since it was found in the Páramo del Sumapaz, to the south east of the Colombian Capital.
The scientists Humberto Mendoza and Cristian Castro, the first linked to the Botanical Garden of Bogotá and the second to the Institute of Natural Sciences of the National University of Colombia and the Sinchi Institute, undertook an expedition to collect material to enrich the inventory of the flora of the high Andean and páramo ecosystems, within the framework of which they found this new plant that grows in sub-páramo, ruderal areas, on clay-loam soils.
The research was recently published by the Journal of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences and describes the new species of melastomataceae, of which there is only a record in the village of Nazareth and the village of San Juan de Sumapaz in the town of Sumapaz. , Bogotá, DC, between 2,884 and 3,410 meters elevation.
The researchers collected samples with flowers in the months of September to November 2020 and since then they have been given the task of describing them and illustrating the novelty found. Shortly after, the researchers determined that this plant has a set of unique characters in some specimens, including its growth habit and the set of details that make up its organs, known as clothing. Determining that they did not match the recorded species of Chaetolepis, the scientists concluded that it was an undescribed species.
A sample of this new melastomataceae is preserved in the Herbarium of the Botanical Garden of Bogotá, which adds to the record of at least 41,000 species that make up the Entity’s collection.
The Botanical Garden of Bogotá, as a scientific research center, advances in the development of initiatives aimed at obtaining new records that account for the immense floristic potential of Bogotá and its surroundings.