XVI International Botanical Congess

Species of the genus Plagiochila (Dumort.) Dumort. Are widely distributed throughout the humid parts of the Neotropics, from the lowlands up to over 4000 m. Its commonness in the region and the extreme phenotypic plasticity of the species have led to the description of more than 600 taxa (in 19 sections), most of them based on incomplete descriptions and very insufficiently known with respect to their delimination. Our recent revisionary work in the framework of Flora Neotropica shows that more than 80% of the taxa are synonyms. Preliminary analysis of hitherto neglected taxonomic features such as oil bodies, sporophyte morphology (SEM) and secondary metabolites have led to emendation of the sectional classification of the genus.