FOUR NEW SPECIES OF SAURAUIA FROM 
SOUTH AMERICA 
BY 
Duasa D. Sorsarto | 
Saurauia is a widespread genus of the Actinidiaceae 
(Theales). The members of Sawrauia are represented in 
both tropical and subtropical Asia and America. Ac- 
cording to the latest estimate made by Melchior,* ap- 
proximately 280 species of the genus have been described. 
The American distribution of Saurauia extends from 
central Mexico in the north to Bolivia in the south, 
through Andean South America. Twenty-two species 
are found in Mexico and Central America,’ and my 
present study * indicates that 49 species are represented 
in South America. Members of the genus consist mostly 
of localized populations of mountainous and subalpine 
trees and shrubs, but species adapted to lower elevations 
and species with broad geographic distribution are also 
known. 
‘Latin American Teaching Fellow, Associate Professor, Departa- 
mento de Biologia, Facultad de Ciencias y Humanidades, Universidad 
de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia. 
” In Engler, Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien, ed. 12, 2: 160. 1964. 
* Hunter, G.E. 1966. Revision of Mexican and Central American 
Saurauia (Dilleniaceae). Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard., 53 (1): 47-89. 
* Studies of South American Saurauia (Actinidiaceae), 458 pp., 61 
pls., Ph.D. dissertation (1968), Department of Biology, Harvard 
University, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. 
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