Roquea Loeuille & Antar, 2024

Loeuille, Benoît, Almeida, Roberto Baptista Pereira, Siniscalchi, Carolina M., Lusa, Makeli G. & Antar, Guilherme Medeiros, 2024, Roquea, a new genus of Lychnophorinae (Vernonieae, Asteraceae) from Brazil and its phylogenetic placement, Phytotaxa 675 (2), pp. 97-114 : 103

Roquea Loeuille & Antar , gen. nov.

Type: — Roquea multiserialis Loeuille & Antar.

Diagnosis: — Compositarum, tribus Vernonieae , subtribus Lychnophorinae . Frutices vel arbusculae. Indumentum ex pilis variabiliter stellatis nec non eramosis compositum. Folia petiolata , vaginis semiamplexicaulibus instructa. Inflorescentiae in ramis axillaribus, capitula in corymbum disposita. Capitula 130–150-flora; squamae involucri 7–9-seriatae, imbricatae, persistentes. Corollae lilacinae ad subroseas, lobis dense villosis; antherae calcaratae, caudatae; basi stylorum non noduliferi. Cypselae prismaticae, glabrae; carpopodia obsoleta; pappus biseriatus; setae pallidae stramineae, paleaceae, saepe leviter tortiles, seriei exterioris breves, basin leviter connatae, persistentes, seriei interioris caducae.

Etymology: —The generic name honors Dr. Nadia Roque (1970-2024), a Brazilian professor and researcher at Universidade Federal da Bahia, in Salvador, Brazil. She made outstanding contributions to the knowledge of Asteraceae , especially of Neotropical and Brazilian species. She first started her career working with the tribes Barnadesieae and Mutisieae , but soon expanded her studies to Eupatorieae and Heliantheae. She authored more than 100 scientific papers, contributed to ca. 20 book chapters as well as two books: “ Asteraceae . Caracterização e Morfologia Floral ” ( Roque & Bautista 2008) and “ A família Asteraceae no Brasil: classificação e diversidade ” ( Roque et al. 2017b), which have become important references for new students working in Asteraceae taxonomy in Brazil. She also advised numerous graduate students engaged in the study of Asteraceae and other families and led the treatment of Asteraceae in the collaborative project Flora e Funga do Brasil (Roque et al. 2020).