Chimantaea

Chimantaea is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae.[1][2]

Chimantaea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Subfamily:	Wunderlichioideae
Tribe:	Mutisieae
Genus:	Chimantaea Maguire, Steyerm. & Wurdack
Type species
Chimantaea mirabilis Maguire, Steyerm. & Wurdack

This genus[3] is endemic to the Pantepui,[4] a biogeographic province on the Guiana Highlands in Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil.[5] The region is characterized by a pattern of about 50 tepuis, isolated tabletop mountains that arise from the sandstone plateau of the highlands.[5] Tepuis are known for their biodiversity, especially their concentrations of endemic species, and most are still pristine, undisturbed ecosystems.[5] The genus is almost entirely restricted to the Chimantá Massif, a complex of several of these tepuis in Bolívar, Venezuela.[4] There several species of the genus are dominant members of the higher-elevation shrublands, which are known as paramoid vegetation because of their similarity to the páramos of the Andes.[6]

Species

All the species are endemic to Venezuela.[7]

• Chimantaea acopanensis
• Chimantaea cinerea
• Chimantaea eriocephala
• Chimantaea espeletoidea
• Chimantaea huberi
• Chimantaea humilis
• Chimantaea lanocaulis
• Chimantaea mirabilis
• Chimantaea rupicola

References

1. Maguire, Bassett, Steyermark, Julian Alfred. & Wurdack, John Julius. 1957. Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden 9: 428-434 descriptions in Latin; key, commentary and type specimen information in English
2. Tropicos, Chimantaea Maguire, Steyerm. & Wurdack
3. Chimantaea. The Plant List.
4. Rull, V. (2004). Biogeography of the 'Lost World': a palaeoecological perspective. Earth-Science Reviews 67(1), 125-37.
5. Désamoré, A., et al. (2010). Biogeography of the Lost World (Pantepui region, northeastern South America): insights from bryophytes. Phytotaxa 9, 254-65.
6. Rull, V. (2004). An evaluation of the Lost World and Vertical Displacement hypotheses in the Chimantá massif, Venezuelan Guayana. Global Ecology and Biogeography 13(2), 141-48.
7. Flann, C (ed) 2009+ Global Compositae Checklist Archived 2014-11-13 at Archive.today