Format: ORAL

Mauricio Diazgranados1, Clara Morales-Rozo2,3, Maria Pinilla Vargas4, Martha Kandziora4, Roswitha Schmickl4, Andrea L. Simbaqueba5

1 New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard Bronx, NY 10458 2 Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia 3 Jardín Botánico de Bogotá ‘José Celestino Mutis’, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia 4 Charles University, Benátská 2, 128 01 Prague, Czech Republic 5 Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Tunja, Colombia

Pramos, located above the timberline in the Tropical Andes, are remarkable examples of sky islands, and are often considered the worlds most diverse and fastest evolving ecosystems of the high-elevations. Frailejones (common name here referred to all the species within the Espeletiinae, Asteraceae), are the most representative plants of the pramos. With circa 144 recognized species, most endemic but locally abundant, these plants are a model to understand not just biogeographic and phylogenetic patterns in sky islands, but also their conservation challenges under the pressing worlds environmental crisis. We present the state-of-the-art regarding our knowledge on these aspects. The most recent insights into their phylogeny using Hyb-Seq on 1269 nuclear loci, support the hypothesis of two large clades (i.e., Venezuelan and mainly-Colombian clades), radiating in the last 2.5 Ma, from Venezuela into Colombia and more recently into Ecuador. The support for the previously established genera is conflictive, exacerbated by the frequent interspecific hybridization. Regarding their conservation status, our most recent conservation risk assessment for Colombia suggests that 55 (61%) of the 90 species found in the country are under threat, and 40 (45%) species are endangered. In-vitroand in-situ propagation of some of these species is underway. Based on a comprehensive dataset of georeferenced records (5,560 records for 138 species), we implemented the Important Plant Areas (IPAs) approach, using units of analyses of 100 km2. We identified 176 potential IPAs using the distribution of records of globally threatened species (including 59 species), and 51 potential IPAs when considering species richness (including 76 species). We assessed gaps based on currently established protected areas and found that only 27% of the potential IPAs are within those areas, and 73% face significant human disturbances. These results inform priorities for conserving these keystone species for the pramos of the northern Tropical Andes.