Flávio Macedo Alves,^1,* Leandro Cézanne de Souza Assis,² Alexandre Quinet,³ João Batista Baitello<sup>4,**

1</sup>Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Instituto de Biociências-INBIO, Avenida Senador Felinto Muller, S/N, Cidade Universitária, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, 79070-900, Brazil.
²Departamento de Botânica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270901, Brazil.
³Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, R. Pacheco Leão 915, 22460-030, Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
⁴Instituto Florestal, Herbário Dom Bento José Pickel (SPSF), Rua do Horto 931, CEP 02377-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

^*Author for correspondence: flaurace@yahoo.com.br
^**In memoriam. João Batista Baitello was born in 1948, graduated in Natural History from Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho/Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras (São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo State) in 1973, and obtained a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Botany) from the Institute of Biosciences at the University of São Paulo in 1980. He served as scientific researcher at the Forestry Institute of the State of São Paulo and was curator of the Dom Bento José Pickel Herbarium (SPSF). His areas of botanical expertise included phytogeography, Lauraceae, biodiversity, floristics, and phytosociology (<http://lattes.cnpq.br/2011798051420211>).