Floristic checklist of the Mache-Chindul Mountains of northwest Ecuador.

Abstract

An inventory of the vascular plants of the Mache-Chindul mountains is presented from collecting expeditions beginning in 1991 to the present. Reaching an elevation on 800 metres, these mountains are located in north-western Ecuador in the southernmost part of the province of Esmeraldas (00°21′N, 79°44′W) and the northernmost part of the province of Manabí (00°25′S, 79°57′W). The Pacific Ocean lies 20-30 km due west and the equator transects the middle part of this mountain range. The Mache-Chindul range occupies about 400 km² and harbours the last large tract of coastal wet forest in Ecuador, an area less than 4% of its original size. Important protected areas include the Reserva Ecológica Mache-Chindul, Bilsa Biological Station, Bosque Protector Cerro Pata de Pájaro and the Reserva Lalo Loor. An inventory of the 6000 collections made from the region has resulted in the enumeration of 1346 vascular plant taxa that are native to the study area; non-native and introduced species were not heavily sampled and nearly 2400 collections (40%) are only determined to genus. A biogeographic analysis is presented based on the 1318 native species. A total of 162 species (12%) are endemic to the western lowlands of coastal Ecuador. The Mache-Chindul flora shares 865 species (66%) with the lowlands of Amazonia, across the barrier of the Andes, and 957 species (73%) are shared with the Chocó region of coastal Colombia. A total of 814 species (61%) extend further north into Mesoamerica. The botanical explorations in the Mache-Chindul mountains have resulted in the publication of two monotypic genera and 33 species recently described as new to science. An annotated list of species by family is given that includes the publication citation, a representative specimen, elevation range, habitat preference and phytogeographic region for each species.