We describe and illustrate four new species of dragon’s blood trees (Croton sect. Cyclostigma) fromwestern SouthAmerica. Three of the species, beckii from Bolivia and Peru, C. camposii fromPeru, and C. santamartensis fromColombia, grow inmontane Andean forest,whereas C. tumbesinus in dry forest of the Tumbes/Piura ecoregion of western Ecuador and Peru. The characters that place them in Croton sect. Cyclostigma include the habit, the presence of reddish to yellowish latex, an indument of stellate trichomes, conspicuous and persistent stipules, acropetiolar/basilaminar glands, and terminal inflorescences with bisexual cymules at the base. These new species give additional support for the Andean region being the center of diversity of this Neotropical Croton clade, as well as being a region whose biodiversity knowledge is still incomplete.
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Feio et al. (2018) studied this question.
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