Diversity of araceae in the northwestern forest landscape of Ecuador

Abstract

Araceae in Ecuador has great endemism. It is estimated that in the western foothills of the Andes, species that would disappear before being described could be found. According to IUCN, the high percentage of this endemism is under some category of threat. The objective was to evaluate the diversity and ecology of the Araceae family, as a potential to complement forest conservation policies in this region. The investigation was carried out in: 1. Sarapullo Forest, 2. Tsáchila Peripa Community Forest and, 3. La Perla Protective Forest. 10 transects of 50x2 m were implemented in each sector. The results show that the abundance of species was similar between Sarapullo and La Perla, but in the Peripa Sector it was less than two, it should be noted that this sector has undergone selective extraction by the Tsáchila community, although it was presented here the greatest diversity. There is greater similarity between Peripa and La Perla that could be due to the fact that they are geographically and altitudinally close, while between the Sarapullo-Peripa and Sarapullo-La Perla pairs the similarity was less, due to the large difference in these two variables. Something similar occurs with the species shared between Peripa and La Perla, which is larger by comparing any of them with Sarapullo. The genus of hemiepiphyte and epiphytic habits are presented in a greater percentage compared to the genres of terrestrial habits, the shafts probably provide a better guarantee of survival. Additionally, 8 endemic species were shared between the three sectors and 3 new species still to be confirmed. Botanical collections rest in Herbariums of Ecuador and the United States.