A new species, Rhinacanthus flavovirens Amarasinghe & Wijesundara (Acanthaceae), from Sri Lanka, is described and illustrated. It is compared with the closely allied Rhinacanthus nasutus and R. polonnaruwensis. A key to Rhinacanthus species in Sri Lanka is also presented.

Xylopia parvifolia (Wight) Hook.f. & Thomson (Annonaceae), based on Patonia parvifolia Wight, is a tree species native to Sri Lanka and India. Unfortunately the widely used name is an illegitimate later homonym. Xylopia patoniae I.M.Turner is here proposed as an avowed substitute. There have been two proposals to lectotypify Patonia Wight. The earliest, and one to be followed, proposed Patonia parvifolia Wight as the lectotype, maintaining Patonia as a synonym of Xylopia. A later proposal to make Patonia walkeri Wight (≡ Diospyros walkeri (Wight) Gürke) the type has to be disregarded.

The separation of Thecacoris and Cyathogyne (Phyllanthaceae, formerly Euphorbiaceae) is discussed and it is concluded that they should remain united. A separation of the continental forest species (except Thecacoris viridis (Müll.Arg.) Leandri ex G.L.Webster) awaits molecular investigation. Thecacoris micrantha sp. nov. is described and illustrated. Thecacoris grandifolia (Pax & K.Hoffm.) Govaerts from Cameroon is neotypified. Thecacoris membranacea Pax and T. annobonae Pax & K.Hoffm. are lectotypified and placed in synonymy under T. stenopetala (Müll.Arg.) Müll.Arg. and T. trichogyne Müll.Arg., respectively. Thecacoris manniana (Müll.Arg.) Müll.Arg. is united with T. stenopetala under the latter name. A key to and a synopsis of the West African species is provided.

The seed coat morphology of 50 species of Campanulaceae sensu stricto, representing all 10 South African genera, was studied by scanning electron microscopy to gauge its usefulness in the diagnosis of genera or to support clades. Possible correlations with life form (annual, herbaceous and woody perennial) and ecological requirements such as fire response, rainfall requirements, bedrock and soil preferences, as well as habitat (e.g. fynbos, strandveld, renosterveld, grassland and karoo), were also investigated. Patterns of variation are described and interpreted as conforming to two seed coat types: reticulate (Type 1) and striate/wavy (Type 2). Type 1 seeds are further divided into eight subtypes. Some general trends emerged; for example, Type 1 seeds occur in all major clades of wahlenbergioids, Type 1A with a smooth coarsely reticulate surface being predominant in fynbos taxa, all of which are woody perennials. Several of the Type 1 seeds, together with Type 2 seeds, also occur in species with wider ecological amplitude, for example in karoo, strandveld or montane grasslands. In Siphocodon there is remarkable disparity in seed type between species. These variations in seed type generally appear to accord with current knowledge of climatic changes and soil evolution during the Tertiary of South Africa, and may be useful indicators of generic emergence and mosaic speciation in the major lineages of wahlenbergioids. However, it was concluded that seed coat types do not correlate closely enough with specific ecological requirements or life forms to be of unequivocal predictive value. Also, apart from Merciera and Treichelia, they are of limited use as a diagnostic character for genera, but are useful for distinguishing species.

This study analysed phytogeographic patterns of several Atlantic Forest areas in southeastern Brazil, including forest areas in the Espinhaço Range, to identify species with congruent distribution patterns and possible environmental factors that might influence these. A total of 54 floristic surveys, predominantly from semideciduous woodland sites but also including some rainforest areas, were compared using UPGMA and DCA methods as well as Jaccard analyses. The former identified four main groupings: group 1 included forests located throughout the Espinhaço Range; group 2 was formed by forest areas in the Rio Jequitinhonha basin; group 3 was formed by three distinct subgroups, one (3.1) predominantly of forest areas pertaining to the Alto Rio Grande basin, another (3.2) of upland forests of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, and a third subgroup (3.3) of upland forests of the Serra da Mantiqueira; and group 4 encompassed forest areas in the Rio Doce, Rio Paraíba do Sul, Rio Itanhém and Rio Itapemirim basins. The prevailing relief in these basins has influenced rainfall and seasonality in these areas which, in turn, have exerted a major influence on the composition of the semideciduous forests. Geographic proximity and altitude, although important factors, play a minor role in the phytogeographic patterns analysed. Despite the floristic heterogeneity of the Espinhaço Range forests, there are physiognomic and floristic affinities among the forests within the campos rupestre vegetation. These are due to the high altitude and features of the soil.

This study describes the structure of the arboreal plant community in a cerradão fragment located at the Serra de Caldas Novas State Park, Goiás, central Brazil. It also compares the collected data with information from 10 other cerradão sites on dystrophic and mesotrophic soils. All trees of 4.77 cm or more diameter at breast height, in twenty-five 20 m × 20 m plots, were surveyed. Soil samples were analysed to determine the availability of nutrients. The vegetation had a discontinuous canopy, with a high density of small and medium-sized trees, and the soil was classified as dystrophic according to nutrient availability. Under ordination using Detrended Correspondence Analysis, species characteristic of the study site, such as Sclerolobium paniculatum and Emmotum nitens, were positioned in the central portion, while cosmopolitan species formed distinct groups, separated along the two axes. The community showed a low level of similarity in comparison to cerradões reported in the literature in other parts of Brazil, having more than 50% similarity only with three geographically close sites.

A new species of Vaccinium section Bracteata (Ericaceae), Vaccinium nagamasu Argent, presently known only from the type specimen from around the summit of Mt. Rasam c.10 km south of Lake Diatas, West Sumatra, Indonesia, is described. Its distinctive characters are discussed and comments made on the differences between this and other related species.

Since the publication of the Gabon Checklist in 2006, intensive fieldwork activity has led to the discovery of many novelties. We document here 61 new records for the flora of Gabon, including nine new generic records. Five taxa are also removed from the Gabon flora.

The genus Endospermum (Euphorbiaceae) in the Malay Archipelago (Malesia) comprises eight rather than the 10 species recognised in the latest revision by Schaeffer in 1971. Endospermum banghamii and E. ronaldii are synonymised with E. quadriloculare. The diagnostic characters for the genus are briefly discussed with special emphasis given to the myrmecophytic characters. The phylogenetic analysis, based on morphological characters (11 vegetative and 12 reproductive), resulted in a single, most parsimonious cladogram with bootstrap support only for the genus. The historical biogeographic analysis, used to evaluate the cladogram, showed that two species are placed in an unexpected position in the phylogeny, which means that the morphology-based cladogram may be reliable to a large extent.