Heliconia atratensis (IMAGE)
Caption
A Heliconia atratensis specimen in the United States National Herbarium at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, representing one of 45 Heliconia species listed for protection in the newly published Plants, People, Planet study.
This species is known from 16 specimens collected from 11 populations found in the understory of the Chocó-Darién moist forests of Colombia. H. atratensis is assessed as near threatened due to its narrow distribution, known populations all outside of Colombia’s protected-areas network and no known individuals preserved in botanical gardens. This species may be difficult to grow in greenhouse conditions because of its unique soil, drainage and moisture requirements.
The new work places Heliconia among a select group of plants to undergo a detailed, comprehensive conservation assessment. Traditionally such an effort requires countless hours of demanding fieldwork. Instead, the new project relied on previous field work conducted by research botanists like John Kress, an emeritus curator at the museum and one of the authors of the new study, who spent decades collecting Heliconia plants in the tropics. These efforts yielded thousands of dried specimens and data-rich labels that are housed in herbaria around the world, including the museum.
Credit
Smithsonian
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