Background and Aims:

The genus Meriania has 120 neotropical species, 51 of them in Colombia. This work deals with the taxonomic review of the genus for Colombia, documenting species, subspecies, and synonyms.

Methods:

A total of 660 specimens of Meriania from 24 herbaria from Colombia, Ecuador, the United States of America, and England were reviewed and evaluated, and the protologues and images of type specimens in JSTOR Global Plants of the species present in Colombia were consulted. A detailed description of the genus, an identification key, as well as descriptions, illustrations, distribution maps and threat categories are established for each of the species present in Colombia.

Key results:

Meriania is characterized by petals ≥9 mm long, nongeniculate stamens, anthers of antepetalous stamens with dorsally inclined pores, capsular fruits and seeds with a straight embryo. Two new species (M. neilli and M. ramosii) and three new subspecies of M. macrophylla (M. macrophylla subsp. antioquiensis, M. macrophylla subsp. franciscana and M. macrophylla subsp. peltata) are described. In addition, 18 new synonyms are established and 19 lectotypifications are carried out. The species in Colombia are distributed in the Andean region (34 spp.), Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (2 spp.), and Guiana Shield-Orinoquia (2 spp.), between 100 and 3700 m a.s.l. Threat categories are documented for 31 species, while six species were not categorized because most of their distribution ranges are found in other countries.

Conclusions:

With this revision, Meriania consists of 102 species, 37 of them present in Colombia. Andean species (33 spp.) can be considered within Meriania s.s., while four species found in lowland areas of the Magdalena Medio and Guiana Shield-Orinoquia could be considered as different genera in the future, based on anthers characters, ovary locule number, and seminal rudiment arrangement.

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