ABSTRACT
Gaya comprises 39 Neotropical species with the greatest diversity in Brazil and Peru. Fourteen species occur throughout Brazil, eight of these are endemic, predominantly distributed in the Northeastern region, in Caatinga domain. The genus is characterized by having pendulous flower buds and erect flowers at anthesis, inflated and pendulous schizocarpic fruits (erect at maturity), and mericarps with or without an internal structure (the endoglossum, which can hold the seed), in addition to a constriction on dorsal side or on basal portion and dehiscence on the dorsal face toward the constriction, two characters explored for the first time. This study was based on morphological analyses of approximately 450 herbarium specimens. The taxonomy of the species was based on characters found mainly in fruit and flower, with new diagnostics characters detected. This work includes an analytical key, morphological descriptions, new illustrations, comments about the variability, taxonomic relationship and distribution, maps, new occurrences and conservation data.
Keywords:
distribution; diversity; morphology; new occurrences
