Taxonomic studies of Araceae in Myanmar VII: Two new species and a new record for the genus Homalomena

Abstract

Citizen scientists, through social media, have advanced taxonomy for several years, contributing to biodiversity documentation and species discovery. This is very beneficial for Myanmar, given that progress in documenting their flora is hampered by a lack of alpha taxonomic studies and herbarium specimens. In this paper, two new species of Homalomena are described from Myanmar–Homalomena punctifolia K.Z.Hein and Naive sp. nov. and Homalomena sigmoidea K.Z.Hein and Naive sp. nov. discovered by citizen scientists and posted on Facebook. A detailed description, color plates, phenology, habitat, geographical distribution, and a provisional conservation status are provided for each species. In addition, H. pontederiifolia is reported as a newly recorded species for Myanmar. With the discovery of two new species and H. pontederiifolia, Myanmar now holds six Homalomena species.