Format: ORAL

Muoz-Schler, P.1, Morales-Alonso, A.2,3, Garca-Moro, P.3, Acedo, C.4, Bentez-Bentez, C.5, Cano, A.6, Donado, S.7, Lois, R.4, Luceo, M.3, Mrquez-Corro, J.I.3,8, Penneckamp, D.9, Reznicek, A.10, Roalson, E.11, Sanz-Arnal, M.3, Villaverde, T.2, Martn-Bravo, S.3 Jimnez-Mejas, P.3

1CONC Herbarium, Department of Botany, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile. 2Biodiversity and Conservation Area, Department of Biology and Geology, Physics and Inorganic Chemistry, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain. 3Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemical Engineering, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, ctra. de Utrera km 1, 41013, Seville, Spain. 4Deparment of Biodiversity and Management, Universidad de León, León, Spain. 5Plant Biology and Ecology Department, Botany Area, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla 41012, Spain. 6Natural Sciences Museum, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú. 7Instituto de Botánica Darwinion, San Isidro, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 8Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, TW9 3AB, Richmond, United Kingdom. 9Laboratory of Biodiversity and Canopy Ecology, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Austral de Chile, P.O. Box 567, Valdivia, Chile. 10University of Michigan Herbarium, 3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA. 11School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, DC 99164-4236, USA.

South America harbors an astonishing amount of the worlds vascular plant diversity, including more than 120000 species, 6200 genera and five biodiversity hotspots. Systematic and evolutionary studies have been mostly focused on plant lineages greatly diversified in tropical habitats like rainforests, in contrast to the comparatively less studied temperate lineages, which are mostly confined within the continents colder regions. The genus Carex L. (Cyperaceae) is a megadiverse and sub-cosmopolitan group of plants, which, despite being within the ten most speciose plant genera of South Americas temperate regions, has been historically overlooked. In this work we present a preliminary systematic synopsis of Carex in South America, derived from the results of more than nine years of past and ongoing international collaborative studies involving researchers from all over America and Spain. The main results are the systematic revisions of the two largest lineages within the continent, sections Junciformes and Uncinia, as well as a series of taxonomical and chorological studies aimed to resolve the systematics of complex groups, describe new taxa, and elucidate biogeographic patterns.