Gingersrus Database Taxon ID 7791Costus atlanticusOLD NAME: Costus atlanticus NEW NAME: Costus atlanticus NAME CHANGE NOTES: This is a published new species from Brazil that is close to C. spiralis. The revision team has not decided yet whether to list it as an accepted species, but under consideration. FULL SCIENTIFIC NAME: Costus atlanticus E.M.Pessoa & M.Alves STATUS : accepted CONTINENT: Neotropical FIELD OBSERVATIONS:(If field observations are available, you can click on the link to open in a new window.) SEE INATURALIST FIELD OBSERVATIONS PHOTOS:(If photos are available, you can click on the link to open in a new window.) GOOGLE PHOTO ALBUM SYNONYMS: BOTANICAL NOTES: Costus atlanticus was newly described and published in April 2020 by Edlley Pessoa and Marccus Alves. It is a plant form that is very commonly cultivated in Brazil, having reddish non-appendaged bracts and pink semi-tubular flowers with an erect orientation. It was published in Systematics and Biodiversity, Volume 18, No. 1, Pages 42-56, available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772000.2020.1729890. The authors only found two populations in the wild - both in Pernambuco, Brazil. We have not seen any other wild populations but there are many observations of cultivated plants in Brazil which can be seen on Inaturalist at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=1232590. All of these observations appear to be either in urban areas or otherwise outside of naturally forested areas, so they are believed to occur there from cultivated plants. These plants have the bract form and erect flowers of Costus spiralis but with a cordate leaf base and partially spreading labellum like Costus arabicus so it is uncertain whether this is truly a valid species or possibly a hybrid of those two species as is believed by some members of the team working on the revision to new world Costaceae. The species is exemplified by the registered cultivar Costus 'Tropicais' which was received from a plant in cultivation in Brazil. DNA was extracted from a sample of this cultivar but has not yet been included in the molecular phylogeny.
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