Update on plant endemism in the cordillera of Guaniguanico (Western Cuba)

Abstract

Cordillera of Guaniguanico is one of the country's mountain ranges, located north of the provinces of Pinar del Río and Artemisa in the western region of Cuba and made up of the Sierra del Rosario and the Sierra de los Órganos. It has always attracted the attention of national and foreign scholars due to the remarkable landscape and biological wealth of the region. Numerous studies have been carried out on the vascular flora in this cordillera, reflecting different percentages of its endemic flora. Given the importance of district endemisms, due to their limited distribution and the high degree of adaptation to the environment and vulnerability to global and local changes, this work aimed to update the endemic vascular flora in the district, by endemism categories and based on their distribution; also, the floristic relations of this with the rest of the sectors and districts of Cuba were discussed also. 320 cuban endemics were registered for the sector (88 families and 202 genera), of which 195 are only found in the central sector. The best represented families were Rubiaceae, Asteraceae, Myrtaceae and Euphorbiaceae. Shrubs are the predominant growth habit in all categories of endemics. Of the total number of endemic species present in Cordillera of Guaniguanico. 264 species have some type of threat category, most of them Critically Endangered or Endangered.