Will you be attending the Latin American Botanical Congress in Quito, Ecuador? Would you like to learn more about nomenclature? If so please consider signing up for the botanical nomenclature course that is being offered by IAPT. The course occurs on 19-20 October. The cost is $25, which includes a copy of the print version of the new Spanish translation of the 2018 International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Shenzhen Code). The instructors get no better than this: Jefferson Prado (Brasil, jprado.01@uol.com.br), Sandra Knapp (U.K., s.knapp@nhm.ac.uk) and Nicholas Turland (Germany, N.Turland@bgbm.org). If you have already registered for the Congress but would like to add

by Thomas Borsch, Hilda Flores-Olvera, Silvia Zumaya Mendoza, Kai Müller Iresine is a neotropical genus of the Amaranthaceae with most of the species diversity in Mexico and Mesoamerica. It has suffered a complex classification history with considerably diverging views on the genus concept. We have carried out a phylogenetic analysis of Iresine and allied genera using sequence data of combined plastid introns (including the matK CDS) and spacers as well as ITS, and a dense sampling of species. Trees depict a clade of Iresine with Irenella and Woehleria deeply nested. This clade is sister to the remainder of Gomphrenoideae including Hebanthe and Trommsdorffia = Pedersenia). One of two maxim

by Nicolas Magain, Camille Truong, Trevor Goward, Dongling Niu, Bernard Goffinet, Emmanuel Serusiaux, Orvo Vitikainen, Francois Lutzoni, Jolanta Miadlikowska This comprehensive phylogenetic revision of sections Peltigera and Retifoveatae of the cyanolichen genus Peltigera is based on DNA sequences from more than 500 specimens from five continents. We amplified five loci (nrITS, β-tubulin and three intergenic spacers part of colinear orthologous regions [COR]) for the mycobiont, and the rbcLX locus for the cyanobacterial partner Nostoc. Phylogenetic inferences (RAxML and BEAST) and species delimitation methods (bGMYC, bPTP, bPP) suggest the presence of 88 species in section Peltigera, inclu

by Domingos Cardoso, Daiane Trabuco Cruz, Álvaro Idárraga, Karina Banda, Álvaro Cogollo, Cássio van den Berg, Luciano Paganucci Queiroz, Toby Pennington, Matt Lavin Ecology, geography, morphology, and a combined phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence variation support the recognition of the new species Luetzelburgia jacana (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae, vataireoid clade). This species is found in the inter-Andean Rio Cauca Valley in Colombia. Phylogenetic analyses of nine plastid and nuclear DNA sequences representing 44 accessions of all known Luetzelburgia species show that L. jacana is sister to the rest of the genus and has a mean estimated stem age of c. 4 Ma, much older than other Luet

by Michelle J. Price, Leonard Thomas Ellis The name Andreaea alpina Hedw. was validly published in Hedwig's 1801 work Species muscorum frondosorum, but the entity itself can be traced back in the pre-Linnaean literature to Dillenius of 1741 where it was described under "Lichenastrum." Three herbarium sheets in the Hedwig-Schwägrichen herbarium in G are associated with A. alpina: one that was identified as A. rupestris Hedw. (G00056451), one as A. obovata Thed. (G00056454), and one non-original specimen that was indicated as A. alpina (G00040015). The latter sheet had been annotated 'holotype', and later 'lectotype', for this name, although formal typification of the name had yet to be effe

by Geadelande Delgado, George Staples, Maria Teresa Buril Dichondra is a genus of creeping and sprawling herbs with reniform leaves, entire leaf margins and inconspicuous flowers. It is included in the tribe Dichondreae (Convolvulaceae). Dichondra is a taxonomically complex genus with multiple unsolved nomenclatural problems. We propose lectotypes for Dichondra argentea, D. parvifolia, D. macrocalyx and D. sericea and a neotype for Demidofia repens, the basionym of Dichondra carolinensis.

by Angelo Troia, Germinal Rouhan To stabilize the application of some names in the genus Isoetes in the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, we studied herbarium specimens and imaged spores with scanning electron microscopy, with special reference to those taxa in the I. longissima Bory and I. histrix Bory groups that were described from France, Algeria and Turkey, and are in need of a taxonomic revision. The following names are lectotypified: I. adspersa A.Braun, I. boryana Durieu, I. delalandei J.Lloyd, and I. viollaei Hy. Holotypes of I. perralderiana Durieu & LeTourn. ex Milde and I. olympica A.Braun were ascertained. We conclude that I. boryana (listed in the 'Bern Convention' and in t

by John Richard Ironside Wood, Serena Marner, Robert Scotland, Stephen Harris Dillenius's Hortus Elthamensis was published in 1732. In most versions the plates are uncoloured, but a few surviving coloured versions are known. The plates are of considerable historical and scientific importance as many Linnaean types are founded on these illustrations. The specimens on which the plates were based are still housed in the Oxford University Herbaria (OXF) and examples from Convolvulaceae are discussed to show how the plates were based on and sometimes copied exactly from the original specimens. A second step lectotypification is made for Ipomoea glaucifolia L. Our study of Convolvulaceae types h

by Pablo Ferrer Gallego The nomenclatural types of the Linnaean names in the genus Zygophyllum (Zygophyllaceae) are discussed and revised. Lectotypes of Z. fulvum (≡ Roepera fulva), Z. morgsana (≡ R. morgsana), Z. sessilifolium (≡ R. sessilifolia) and Z. spinosum (≡ R. spinosa) are designated, and Z. simplex (≡ Tetraena simplex) is neotypified. Epitypes are designated for Z. coccineum and Z. spinosum due to ambiguity in the interpretation of their types. Linnaeus's original material of Z. aestuans and Z. nitraria could not be found, the application of the names appears uncertain, therefore they are treated as nomen ambiguum. In addition, the typification of Decaisne's name Z. propinquum (≡ T

by Christopher D Tyrrell, Ximena Londoño, Ramona Oviedo Prieto, Lakshmi Attigala, Katelyn McDonald, Lynn G Clark Arthrostylidium, a Neotropical genus of 31 mostly clambering woody bamboo species, is a member of subtribe Arthrostylidiinae, which is closely allied to subtribe Guaduinae. Arthrostylidium has long been a catchall for species within its subtribe that display unusual morphology. While attempting to clarify the circumscription of Arthrostylidium, we discovered three West Indian species (A. angustifolium, A. farctum, and A. pinifolium) that possess putative Guaduinae features. We test the hypothesis that these three species should be classified within subtribe Guaduinae and revise

by Sonja Kistenich, Einar Timdal, Mika Bendiksby, Stefan Ekman The Ramalinaceae is the fourth largest family of lichenized ascomycetes with 42 genera and 913 species exhibiting considerable morphological variation. Historically, generic boundaries in the Ramalinaceae were primarily based on morphological characters. However, molecular systematic investigations of subgroups revealed that current taxonomy is at odds with evolutionary relationships. Tropical members of the family remain particularly understudied, including the large genus Phyllopsora. We have generated and collected multilocus sequence data (mtSSU, nrITS, nrLSU, RPB1, RPB2) for 149 species associated with the Ramalinaceae and

by Jacqueline MAGWE-TINDO, Jan J. WIERINGA, Bonaventure SONKE, Louis ZAPFACK, Yves VIGOUROUX, Thomas L. P. COUVREUR, Nora SCARCELLI The genus Dioscorea (Dioscoreaceae) contains several economically important species for human consumption, medical and pharmaceutical uses. The phylogeny of this genus is not yet fully resolved. As a result, the relationships between cultivated yams and their wild relatives are not well understood and this negatively affects the understanding of the evolution of cultivated yams. Here, we reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships of the main African cultivated species with all West African species in order to better circumscribe the crop wild relatives (CWR) o

From the National Museum's website at http://www.museunacional.ufrj.br/destaques/comoajudar.html: DID YOU FIND FRAGMENTS OF PIECES FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM? Please deliver them to the Central Library, Monday to Friday between 10 am and 4 pm. The library is located in the Botanical Garden, Quinta da Boa Vista. DO YOU HAVE DIGITAL PARTS OR COPIES OF JOURNALS OR OTHER PRINTED WORKS THAT YOU WANT TO DONATE? Please email falecomdiretor@mn.ufrj.br (subject: DONATION). DO YOU WANT TO VOLUNTEER? Please email falecomdiretor@mn.ufrj.br (subject VOLUNTEER). DO YOU HAVE PICTURES OF THE COLLECTION? Send by institutional link at museunacional.ufrj.br/memoria. Help in rebuilding the museu

From: Guilherme Ramos da Silva Muricy Subject: Re: Rio Museum Dear friends Thank you all very much for your kind and warm messages of support, we really appreciated it in this terrible moment. We are totally devastated by this tragedy and we are still recovering from the shock of seeing Brazil's most popular museum and our beloved working place being destroyed. The scientific, cultural and historical losses are huge. Thousands of type specimens were lost, especially of the entomology and arachnology collections, together with millions of unique itens of these and the anthropological, geological and palaeontological collections. Some people lost 40 years of hard work. Fortunately the Library,

IAPT Chromosome Data (formerly IAPT/IOPB Chromosome Data) is a regular column in Taxon that publishes vouchered chromosome counts and ploidy level estimates for a range range of plant taxa. All issues of IAPT Chromosome Data are available through this website, and are searchable by family and genus. Read more, or search IAPT Chromosome Data at https://www.iaptglobal.org/chromosome-data

Rio de Janeiro, Sept. 4th 2018, Dear colleagues and curators, The Museum palace burned down and mostly everything housed in it was lost. A damage assessment is now in progress by a large team of different authorities. It seems that a thousand of my friends just deceased simultaneously. And yes, the work of thousands of colleagues, past and extant, just turned to ashes. The World just lost many million scientific treasures. All numbers in the media are nothing but rough (under)estimates. As the curator of the R Herbarium I am relieved to inform that in 2007 the herbarium (with ca. 650 thousand specimens and 8 thousand types) was moved out of the palace (main building of the Museu Nacional) in

The 7th International Legume Conference was held in Sendai, Japan this week. The legume conferences are well known for their informal atmosphere with diverse research subjects in many areas of legume biology and evolution. There were two very special sessions at the conference this week. One was devoted to legume morphology and was dedicated to the amazing career of Dr. Shirley Tucker (Louisiana State University, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden). Shirley studies floral development in legumes (and other families) and made many important contributions over her long career. But in addition to her science contributions Shirley also has made many important contributions to the legume community throu