Current floristic and phytogeographic knowledge of Mexican Bromeliaceae

Abstract

A current floristic and phytogeographic knowledge of native Mexican Bromeliaceae is presented. There are 22 genera of Brorlleliaceae recorded from the country Iha! ¡nelude 326 species. The genus Ursulaea with 2 species is endemic to Mexico, wbíle Hechtia with 48 oC its 50 specíesbas its principal center of diversity in the country. 7illandsia ( 1 75 spp), Hechtia (48 spp) and Pitcairnia (46 spp) are tbe genera with tbe greatest number of species. We present a comparative análysisof Mexican Bromeliaceae with tbat of other American regions that buve recently published accounts Cor the Family, .particularly the Mesomerican area, Venezu¡:la, Ecuador,and tbeGuianas.Our results ledus to the cOI1e1usion tbat all tbese floras sbould be considered as distinct. We obse,rve a progressive decre¡¡¡se ofthe Simpson index value related with the remoteness of the Mexican area. A general análysisof tlrpspeCies numbers of Mexican bromeliad genera shows adistinct preference oftbe species forconiferousand oakfo,rests'; folÍowed by troopical caducifolious forests.