Overlooked for 200 years: a new species of Sacoila (Orchidaceae) from the Espinhaço mountain range of Minas Gerais and Bahia, Brazil

Sacoila espinhacensis, a new species from Brazil is described, illustrated and compared with other species of the genus. The species is endemic to the Espinhaço Range in the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia. The first records date back about two centuries, but the species has been misidentified ever since.

The new species is corroborated by morphology and molecular phylogenetic analyses based on nuclear and plastid markers. The main distinguishing features of S. espinhacensis are flowering during the rainy season, flat, pseudopetiolate leaves with a conspicuous hyaline margin, present during anthesis, a generally short inflorescence, orange flowers and a distribution restricted to rupestrian field vegetation between 800 and 1600 metres above sea level.

The fact that S. espinhacensis has remained unnoticed for over two hundred years highlights the mistaken focus on highly conserved floral morphology in Sacoila taxonomy, and emphasises the importance of other characteristics, such as vegetative morphology, phenology, ecology and distribution, for the characterisation and delimitation of Sacoila species.