Historical notes on botanical explorations in Madruga (western Cuba)

Abstract

The municipality of Madruga, in western Cuba, was only sparsely mentioned in the scientific literature of the nineteenth century and did not begin to be explored botanically in a systematic manner until the twentieth century, with particular attention to the Sierra del Grillo. Through a critical review of bibliographic sources, archival documents, historical cartography, and national and international herbarium collections, this study reconstructs the chronological sequence of botanical explorations conducted in Madruga during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, identifying their main actors, institutional contexts, and floristic contributions. Nineteenth-century naturalist antecedents and formal botanical expeditions of the first half of the twentieth century are analyzed; their collections resulted in significant specimens and the deposition of material in herbaria in Cuba, the United States, and Europe, as well as the subsequent institutionalization of these studies during the second half of the twentieth century, linked to national programs of floristic inventory and synthesis. The results confirm that Madruga constituted a relevant setting for the development of botany in western Cuba and highlight the historical and scientific value of the Sierra del Grillo for understanding regional biodiversity.