Oxypetalum laciniatum, a new species of Asclepiadoideae (Apocynaceae) from southern Bahia, Brazil

A new species of Oxypetalum , O. laciniatum Rapini & Farinaccio, is described and illustrated. It was collectedonly once in the moist forest of southern Bahia, and belongs to the O. cordifolium (Vent.) Schltr. speciescomplex. The new species, however, can be promptly distinguished from the others in this group by theflowers with longer lacinia (ca. 2.85 cm long), shorter pollinia (up to 0.3 mm long; about 1/3 of thecorpusculum length), and appendix of gynostegium with apex slightly bifid in subparallel branches.Key words : Asclepiadaceae, Atlantic forest, floristics, taxonomy. Introducao Oxypetalum R. Br. (Apocynaceae) e umgenero neotropical com cerca de 120 especies,ocorrendo da Argentina ao Mexico, mas comcentro de diversidade na porcao centro-leste daAmerica do Sul (Farinaccio 2006). A maioria dasespecies possui flores vistosas, geralmente comginostegio rostrado, simulando um estigma, epolinarios com caudiculos horizontais providosde um dente incluso. As especies brasileiras foramrevisadas por Hoehne (1916) e as argentinas porMeyer (1943); desde entao, varios estudos temcontribuido para a taxonomia do genero, comdestaque para floras estaduais recentes nasRegioes Sul e Sudeste do Brasil (