ABSTRACT
Itatiaia National Park has been studied since before being recognized as a conservation area, in June of 1937. With its area located between the states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, it currently protects approximately 30,000 hectares of biotic and geomorphological heritage of the Serra da Mantiqueira. This research aims to describe the taxa of Peperomia found in the park, including their preferred habitat, highlighting rare and endemic species and contributing to the flora of state Rio de Janeiro. Peperomia, the second largest genus of the Piperaceae, has about 1500 species, with 200 Brazilian representatives ocurring especially in humid and shady habitats. This study detected 34 taxa, six of them being new occurrences for the area. These taxa, that occur in forest shade and in the "campos de altitude", are found in altitudinal gradients from 600-2700 m, as epiphytes, saxicolous or terricolous plants and are distinguished mainly by phylotaxy, form, size and venation of the leaf, indumentum, petiole and peduncle length and fruit shape.
Key words:
'campos de altitude'; floristic; atlantic forest; taxonomy; Unit of Conservation