HABITAT SUITABILITY AND DOMESTICATION STAGES OF Heliopsis longipes (ASTERACEAE: HELIANTHEAE)

Abstract

Background: Heliopsis longipes is an endemic plant with chemical properties and medicinal use, making it a species of biological, economic, and cultural importance. Objective: To determine the habitat suitability of H. longipes and the domestication stage of the cultivation. Methodology: The presence probability was estimated using the maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt), with twenty-three bioclimatic variables as predictors from presence records. For the domestication process, 79 surveys focused on the knowledge of reproductive biology, production, and management of the species were conducted. Results: The habitat suitability is determined by three variables: precipitation seasonality (51%), soil type (26%), and isothermality (22%). Considering the domestication stages, 81% of farmers are in stage five, where the species is cultivated and harvested using traditional practices, and 11% are in stage four, where general features of the reproductive biology are known. Implications: The importance of climatic and edaphic factors in the species distribution and the cultivation's domestication stage are highlighted. This provides a foundation for conservation strategy design. Conclusions: The contribution of specific variables to habitat suitability underscores the importance of climatic and edaphic factors in the species distribution. Three groups of farmers with different knowledge and cultivation practices were identified, placing them in two different stages of the species domestication process.

Keywords

• chilcuague
• máxima entropía
• conservación.