elevations of the northeastern slopes of the Andes as well as the southeastern slopes remain unexplored. Recent surveys of the Cordillera del Condor, along the Peruvian border, indicates a high rate of endemism. The same is true of the Serrania de Cutucú further to the north.

The Amazonian lowlands, though containing some new species, have mostly rather wide- ranging species in common with other areas of the Amazon basin. An example of the area, now reasonably well collected is that of Jatun Sacha which has a flora of at least 50 species, including 25 species of Anthurium . Of this total only three species are believed to be endemic to Ecuador.

In contrast to the remainder of Ecuador, the Pacific lowlands of western Ecuador south of Esmeraldas are either mostly deforested or seasonally dry and contain relatively few aroid species. This is particularly true of the southwestern part of the country in El Oro and Loja.

The region of northwestern Peru, like that of southeastern Ecuador is relatively dry with a depauperate aroid flora. Species diversity is substantially greater in the mountains of northern Peru in the state of Amazonas, but the region has yet to be well collected. Most collections existing are the result of University of California anthropologist Brent Berlin and his workers who collected in the region of the Río Cenepa and the Río Santiago. This area is home to the rare and poorly collected genus Filarum . Further to the southeast in the department of San Martín numerous endemic species exist. The region around Tarapoto is particularly rich in endemic species, as is the region of Tingo María in northern Huanuco. The drier highland regions of Peru are relatively poor in species. One particularly variable species ranging throughout the highlands from southern Peru to Central Ecuador is A. dombeyanum Brongn. ex Schott. The middle elevations are particularly rich in members of Anthurium sect. Pachyneurium (see discussion of this section below).

The entire Pacific coastal region of Peru, much like the southwestern part of Ecuador is arid, indeed too arid for many aroid species to occur. The same is essentially true for the intermountain valleys in Central Peru. Only in the foothills of the Andes on the eastern slopes do any significant number of species occur but species diversity here does not come close to matching that in Ecuador. The species occurring there, including A. breviscapum Schott, also tend to be much more widespread but there are also significant centers of species richness and endemism such as the areas around Tingo María and Tarapoto in San Martín Department. The species distribution in the Amazon lowlands of Peru mirrors that in the lowlands of Ecuador, tending to be wide-ranging species, many of which also enter Brazil. Examples include Anthurium atropurpureum R. Schultes & Maguire, A. oxycarpum Poeppig, A. Loretense Croat and A. rubrinervium (Link) G.Don. The Flora of Peru (Macbride, 1936) is of relatively little value. The treatment contains 55 species of Anthurium , with eleven names being synonyms of other species treated and an additional two names of plants which do not occur in Peru. The remaining names are probably correct, but may represent as few as one-third of the species in the country. The up to date checklist for Peru (Brako & Zarucchi, in press) has 76 taxa but many remain to be described.

Bolivia is relatively poor in Anthurium species but has a significant number of endemic species. No aroids occur in the dry eastern portion of the country, but a number of species of Anthurium occur in the relatively humid intermountain valleys beginning in Nor Yungas east of La Paz and extending to the lowlands of Beni and to a lesser extent to the east in Cochabamba.