A hot case for conservation: Candombá (Vellozia pyrantha), a flammable plant endemic to a national park is used to make a fire and threatened by fire suppression policy

“Candombá” (Vellozia pyrantha, Velloziaceae) is a caulescent rosette plant endemic to fire-prone “campos rupestres” (rupestrian grasslands or rupestrian fields) in northern Chapada Diamantina National Park, in Bahia State, Brazil. The species exhibits mass flowering after fires and is locally used to light fires in wood stoves. Curiously, it was taxonomically overlooked for a long time and treated under V. sincorana, a species whose flowering is not triggered by fire. This work is a synthesis of what is known about V. pyrantha. It shows how the taxonomic mistake obscured the social and ecological value of V. pyrantha and why the mistake may negatively affect the long-term conservation of this fire-dependent species.