Alto Cariri State Park is a public conservation unit established in 2008 and maintained by the Instituto Estadual de Florestas of Minas Gerais state (IEF-MG). It is situated at the northeastern region of Minas Gerais, along the border with Bahia state, in a mountainous terrain with an elevation of 600 to 900 m, under the hydrological influence of Jequitinhonha river, occupying an area of 6,151 hectares in the counties of Santa Maria do Salto and Salto da Divisa. The hygrophilous Atlantic Forest vegetation predominates over the area with a rich epiphytic flora. On the higher parts of the hills an altitude forest takes places providing ideal condition for the development of a varied bromeliad community which is spread over the forest ground to the higher tree branches. In some areas there are granitic outcrops where rupicolous species find out the ideal condition to thrive.
The park shelters a rich bromeliad flora not yet fully studied, typical of the Atlantic Forest domain, with a great potential for botanical investigation. So the authors initiated in 2010 a systematic survey on the Bromeliaceae of the park under the official support of the Instituto Estatual de Florestas of Minas Gerais (IEF-MG). As a preliminary result of that investigation three new species were recently published, Aechmea altocaririensis Leme & L. Kollmann, A. recurvipetala Leme & L. Kollmann, and Hohenbergia loredanoana Leme & L. Kollmann (Leme & Kollmann, 2011). A complete checklist of the bromeliads of the park and surrounding areas will be available soon, but before that we anticipate here the discovery of two other outstanding new species.
Neoregelia viridovinosa Leme & L. Kollmann, sp. nov.
TYPE: Brazil, Minas Gerais, near the border with Bahia, Santa Maria do Salto, Talisma, RPPN Fazenda Duas Barras, border of the State Park of Alto Cariri, ca. 841 m elev, 16[degrees]24.80'S 40[degrees]03.21'W, 23 March 2010, E. Leme 8165 & L. Kollmann Holotype: RB. Isotype MBML.
A N. pernambucana Leme & J. A. Siqueira, cui affinis, laminis foliorum latioribus, bracteis floriferis apicem versus vinosis, sepalis brevioribus, vinosis, petalis apicem versis totaliter viridibus, ovario vinoso, fructibus rubrovinosis differt.
Plant epiphytic, propagating by short basal shoots. Leaves 16 to 18 in number, sub-erect-arcuate to spreading, forming a broad crateriform rosette; sheaths broadly ellipticovate, 18-23 x 16-16.5cm, subdensely pale-brown lepidote on both sides, greenish to wine colored mainly abaxially and toward the margins; blades linear, not narrowed toward the base, 30-45 x 8-9.5 cm, subdensely to densely and inconspicuously white lepidote mainly abaxially, green toward the base and dark red to vinose toward the apex and along the margins, bearing dark green, sparsely arranged irregular spots, apex broadly acute to rounded and long apiculate, apiculous ca. 1 cm long, margins subdensely spinulose, spines 4-6 x 3-4 mm, 3-12 mm apart, wine colored. Scape ca. 3 cm long, ca. 2.5 cm in diameter, whitish, glabrescent; scape bracts broadly triangular (the basal ones) to subtriangular-ovate (the upper ones), apex acute and long apiculate, suberect, spinulose at the apex to entire, wine colored, inconspicuously and sparsely...