Las Gesneriáceas de Perú

A key to the genera of the family Gesneriaceae found in Peru is presented along with a discussion of each genus and the distribution of all species. The 28 genera and 150 species of Gesneriaceae found in Per comprises shrubs, subshrubs, lianas or herbs, terrestrial or epiphytic, and most species have been collected in the departments of Huanuco (79), Loreto (73), Cuzco (69), San Martin (69) and Amazonas (66), while none species occur in the extremely dry south-western Peru. This reflects that nearly all species are found in forests with most of them in wet montane rainforests or cloud forests, and that they are particularly abundant in low-elevation cloud forests. The most species-rich areas thus are the eastern Andean slopes particularly in northern and central Peru. Much fewer species occur in the Amazon basin represented with a handful of species in the dry forests of the North, and equally few species are found in dryer parts of the Andean highlands. The most specious genera in Peru are Besleria, Columnea, Drymonia and Alloplectus with 35, 21, 17, and 12 species respectively as accepted by the present authors. However, approximately 75% of the Peruvian Gesneriaceae belongs to genera with no modern treatments and new studies may change the numbers of species recognized, particularly for larger genera such as Drymonia and Besleria; it is also likely that additional collections will result in the discovery of some hitherto unknown species.