The new Franco-Brazilian website “Saint-Hilaire virtual herbarium” offers dynamic online consultation of all specimens and manuscripts of the naturalist Auguste de Saint-Hilaire, providing links between specimen images and associated textual data, including notes available in his field books. This tool aims at facilitating the work of taxonomy and systematic botany and allowing a more accurate reconstruction of the routes and time frame of Saint-Hilaire's exploration. All specimens are being digitized by the Paris herbarium (P) and added online. The system will also offer Saint-Hilaire's major publications online. The nomenclature and determinations are automatically updated through dynamic links to the SONNERAT/MNHN database. In this paper, we propose moreover a standard for the correct citation of Saint-Hilaire specimens.

A new species of Neea Ruiz & Pav. (Nyctaginaceae) from the Atlantic Forest of Bahia State (Brazil).

Morphological anatomical characters support the description of a new species from Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Neea alumnorum M.Pignal, Soares Filho & Romaniuc, sp. nov. A description of the leaf venation and a brief analysis of the inflorescence are given. This description is accompanied by pictures taken in the field and illustrations of the male flower, inferior epiderm details and leaf venation. A discussion of morphological affinities with the related species is presented, along with a preliminary assessment of its conservation status (VU) based on the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.

The genus Jumellea Schltr. is revised for the Comoros Archipelago (Grande Comore, Anjouan, Mohéli, Mayotte). Six species occur on the islands: Jumellea anjouanensis (Finet) H. Perrier, J. arachnantha (Rchb. f.) Schltr., J. arborescens H. Perrier, J. comorensis (Rchb. f.) Schltr., J. maxillarioides and J. pailleri F.Rakotoar. These species are not the same as Schlechter covered; Jumellea arborescens, J. maxillarioides (Ridl.) Schltr. and J. pailleri were added to the list whereas Jumellea phalaenophora was removed since its presence in Comoros archipelago is doubtful. Jumellea gladiator (Rchb. f.) Schltr. is a synonym of J. arachnantha (Rchb.f.) Schltr. Three species of Jumellea are endemic to the Comoros archipelago whereas the three other are also present in Madagascar.

The new species, Aristea farafangana Goldblatt & Phillipson, sp. nov., known from a single collection from southeastern Madagascar, has soft textured leaves, a flattened, few-branched stem, and inflorescences (binate rhipidia) consisting of up to ten flowers, borne on pedicels c. 4 mm long. The inflorescence spathes and floral bracts are distinctive in being short, narrow at the base and attenuate. The species may be most closely related to A. cladocarpa Baker, which has up to four flowers per binate rhipidium and larger floral bracts that conceal the 3–4 mm long pedicels. A morphology-based phylogeny suggests that Aristea in Madagascar may have colonized the Island from Africa at least four times, resulting in the presence there of eight species, seven of them endemic.

A new species of the genus Dendrocalamus Nees (Poaceae: Bambusoideae), D. concaviapiculus N.H.Xia et V.T.Nguyen, sp. nov., is described and illustrated from Yen Bai and Phu Tho provinces, Vietnam. It differs from other related Dendrocalamus species by its 5-veined palea between keels and without any vein, its apex and ligule of culm sheath concave, its culm sheath blade short, and its flexuose basal culm internodes.

Peltiera Du Puy & Labat is a Malagasy genus of two described species thought probably to be extinct at the time of its publication in 1997, when it was known only from a total of three pre-1950 collections. However, recent field work in east-central Madagascar has resulted in the discovery of still extant populations, and therefore it is now possible to reconsider the phylogenetic position and status of the genus and its two species. Phylogenetic analyses based on molecular (chloroplast trnK and nuclear ribosomal ITS sequences) and morphological data corroborate the close relationship between Peltiera and Ormocarpopsis R. Vig., a genus of six species, also endemic to Madagascar. Peltiera differs from Ormocarpopsis mainly by having articulated, dehiscent fruits, and the two genera together are, in turn, sister to the widespread but mainly African Ormocarpum P. Beauv. Morphological, distributional and habitat data gathered from the new collections show that only a single species of Peltiera can be recognized, and as this species shares important synapomorphies with all species of Ormocarpopsis, it is transferred to this genus as O. nitida, comb. nov. A distribution map and photographs of O. nitida comb. nov. are presented, and a conservation threat analysis of the species is provided. The name Ormocarpopsis is lectotypified and an amended description of the genus with its new circumscription is given.

Three liana species of Grewia L. are described from Madagascar, bringing to five the members of the genus on the island to exhibit this habit. Grewia manomboensis G.E. Schatz, Randrian. & Lowry, sp. nov., G. rabehevitrae Randrian., Lowry & G.E. Schatz, sp. nov. and G. rufostellata Randrian., Lowry & G.E. Schatz, sp. nov., all three of which occur in low- to mid-elevation humid eastern forest, can be distinguished from one another by several features, including differences in the leaves (size, margin and prominence of the tertiary venation), pedicels (length, diameter and trichome density), sepal size, indument type and color, and petal shape. Illustrations are provided for each new taxon and photographs for two of them, along with a range map, preliminary assessments of the conservation status of each species, and an identification key in English and French.

The present study evaluates Linnaeus' concept of S. rosmarinifolia, as well as its interpretation and application. Additional original material of S. rosmarinifolia L. is cited and discussed. Santolina minor Mill., S. linearifolia Jordan & Fourr., S. chamaecyparissus L. subsp. viridis Rouy var. β subintegrifolia Rouy, S. rosmarinifolia f. robusta Sennen & Pau, and S. rosmarinifolia L. var. foliosa Sennen & Elías are lectotypified. An illegitimate name (S. rosmarinifolia Mill.) is identified. The current status of these names is discussed. Six names not validly published are found. The nomenclatural synonyms of S. rosmarinifolia are provided.

Phytoecological analysis of the woody flora of High Sangha (Republic of Congo). The flora of the High Sangha, just like that of Congo as a whole, develops in the corridor of the “Sangha River” of Guineo-Congolian area. Still badly known, it is studied according to a North-eastern South-western floristic gradient, corresponding to a phytogeographical distribution extending from the Atlantic element (Nigero-Cameroono-Gabonese) to the Cameroono-Congolese element. On both side of the Sangha River, the surface of study is subdivided in three sectors whose central zone is the floristic junction between South-west and the North-East. The inventory of the individuals of dbh ≥ 10 cm counts 387 species of which 12 mark the South-western sector, 18 for the North-eastern sector and six for the central sector. The vertical distribution distinguishes three layers from unequal importance, of which the percentage of species oscillates from 24 to 42%. Floristic diversity, interpreted by the indices of biological diversity of Shannon (6.51 à 7.89) and Simpson (0.96 à 0.99), of the correlations of similarity of Jaccard (31 to 38%) and of Sørensen (62 to 76%) authenticates the floristic change throughout gradient of study, without any dominance of taxa. The weakest indices of biological diversity characterize the Central sector. The floristic composition of the three sectors, concomitantly, shows a reduction in the number of individuals for certain species, and concerning some others an extinction of their surface of distribution, as approaching or moving away from the Sangha River. The ecological characteristics of the flora show 77% of sarcochores and 88% of mesophylles. The ecological valence and the abundance-dominance ratio show that 72% of species are ubiquists and their density lies between three and five individuals/ha.