Recent molecular evidence supports the transfer of two Australian endemic species, Austrocynoglossum latifolium (R.Br.) R.R.Mill and Cynoglossum suaveolens R.Br., to the genus Hackelia Opiz as H. latifolia (R.R.Mill) Dimon & M.A.M.Renner, comb. nov., and H. suaveolens (R.Br.) Dimon & M.A.M.Renner, comb. nov. Hackelia latifolia comprises two morphological entities that, although sharing the procumbent-prostrate habit and production of elongated internodes and frondose bracts in the inflorescence, differ in a range of qualitative and quantitative micro-morphological characters. Hackelia latifolia has few, widely spaced, thorn-like trichomes on stems, a glabrous abaxial lamina surface, and mericarps with free glochids densely and evenly distributed over the outer surface, and a rectangular cicatrix at the mericarp apex, which is beaked. The other entity has many densely packed cellular trichomes on the stems, trichomes on the abaxial leaf lamina, and mericarps with a wing formed by basally connate glochids, and a triangular cicatrix located centrally on the inner mericarp surface. For the latter, we propose the new species Cynoglossum torvum Dimon & M.A.M.Renner, and by implication suggest that H. latifolia is polyphyletic as previously circumscribed. Whereas H. latifolia s.s. is widespread along the south-eastern coast of Australia from Tasmania to south-eastern Queensland, Cynoglossum torvum is restricted to the tablelands of north-eastern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland. We compare C. torvum with the other Australian Cynoglossum L. species, C. australe R.Br., confirm previous observations of variation in mericarp morphology, and suggest that further investigation to resolve species circumscription is required given this variation.

Categorical analysis of neo- and palaeo-endemism (CANAPE), phylogenetic diversity (PD) and phylogenetic weighted endemism (PWE) were used to explore patterns of diversity, endemism and biogeography in the indigenous vascular flora of the New Zealand archipelago. Distributional data comprising 213 142 records for 436 genera and 2187 species and a phylogeny based mainly on rbcL sequences were used to calculate neo- and palaeo-endemism biodiversity metrics for 0.12° grid cells. Genus- and species-level analyses of PD revealed few significantly high-value cells mostly scattered in the northern North Island, and, for PWE, significantly high-value cells were concentrated in the northern North Island and northern offshore islands. CANAPE analyses suggested that palaeo-endemism is concentrated in northern North Island and the northern offshore islands, whereas neo-endemism is concentrated in South Island and the southern offshore islands. The areas of endemism highlighted by our analyses are compared with earlier biogeographic studies of endemism in the New Zealand flora. Some revision of previously suggested biogeographic boundaries is proposed, with the boundaries of the central South Island alpine gap being further north than previous studies have inferred, and the possibility that Pliocene marine transgression contributed to shaping the central North Island palaeo-endemism boundary is discussed.

The present study aimed to detect and quantify centres of vascular plant species and genus endemism and genus phylogenetic endemism in the New Zealand archipelago and to assess the representation of these in the conservation estate. The presence of 2187 vascular plant species, comprising 213 141 georeferenced records, was mapped onto 0.12° grid cells and a genus-level phylogeny was constructed mainly from rbcL sequences used to calculate phylogenetic metrics. Previously identified centres of endemism were confirmed, and new areas of endemism were suggested. Patterns of endemism differ with taxonomic rank. Randomisations showed that the South Island mountains have greater species corrected weighted endemism (CWE) than expected, whereas the randomisations for genus CWE and genus corrected phylogenetic endemism (CPE) showed the northern half of the North Island and northern offshore islands to have greater endemism than expected. Consistent with the randomisations, the highest values of genus CWE and genus CPE predominantly occur in the northern North Island and offshore islands. Centres of species CWE, genus CWE and genus CPE, supported by randomisation analyses, overlap with the New Zealand conservation estate by 40.01, 29.52 and 19.12% respectively. Many areas of high endemism are often poorly protected, highlighting the urgency to consider the areas of endemism identified here in conservation policy, planning and management.

Fossils from the Eocene of South Australia and Western Australia and the Oligo–Miocene of Victoria represent the first known Australian leaf fossils of subfamily Persoonioideae, tribe Persoonieae. Persoonieaephyllum blackburnii sp. nov. is described from Middle Eocene Nelly Creek sediments near Lake Eyre, South Australia. Persoonieae are an important clade for understanding vegetation transitions in Australasia. The Nelly Creek leaf fossils are small (∼6 mm wide) and belong to an assemblage that has some characteristics of open vegetation, which is also inferred for the Oligo–Miocene of the Latrobe Valley, Victoria. In contrast, the Western Australian Late Eocene Persoonieae occur with diverse Lauraceae and other elements now typical of closed rainforests, and may, therefore, have been derived from communities that are unlike those in which most Persoonieae now occur. All fossil Persoonieae leaves so far known are hypostomatic (or virtually so), a state of stomatal distribution now only found in species of reasonably mesic habitats in New Zealand, New Caledonia and eastern Australian eucalypt forests. The ancestral state of stomatal distribution in Persoonieae leaves is unclear, but evidence suggests ancient associations of amphistomaty with open habitats, evolutionary loss of adaxial stomata in more closed vegetation, and the evolution of pronounced xerophylly within south-western Australian heathlands.

A taxonomic treatment is presented for all eight white-flowered Comesperma species that occur in tropical Australia (here defined as north of latitude 21°S). In total, eight species are circumscribed, of which five are new species and one is new subspecies, viz. C. albimontanense A.J. Ford & Halford, C. anemosmaragdinum A.J. Ford & Halford, C. minutum A.J. Ford & Halford, C. rhyoliticum A.J. Ford & Halford, C. sabulosum A.J. Ford & Halford and C. secundum subsp. oligotrichum A.J. Ford & Halford. Notes on habitat, distribution and conservation status are provided. A key to all 10 tropically distributed Comesperma species, including two non-white flowered species, is given.

The role of natural hybridisation and genome changes in the differentiation and speciation of Eleocharis (Cyperaceae) was addressed through the study of the following three closely related species of the polyphyletic series Tenuissimae: Eleocharis viridans Kük. ex Osten, E. ramboana R.Trevis & Boldrini and E. niederleinii Boech., which often reproduce asexually. Molecular and cytogenetic data were used to understand the genomic and karyotypic relationships in the group. Genomes were compared using internal transcribed spacer–cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (ITS-CAPS) marker and confirmed with random amplified polymorphic DNA, which allowed identification of different genetic groups, with clear evidence of natural hybrids. Karyotype analysis showed numerical variation from 2n = 20–42, with occurrence of chromosome heteromorphisms and polymorphisms, including variability in 35S rDNA site numbers. Meiotic studies demonstrated irregular pairing in some samples, which is associated with hybridisation and asexual reproduction. Genomic in situ hybridisation (GISH) reactions were conducted using two well defined genetic groups as probes, with 2n = 20 and normal meiosis. Probes were tested against each one of the genetic groups and showed positive, partial and negative GISH results, which supported the molecular analysis data. The results indicated that the three studied species are undergoing an intense process of genomic and karyotypic re-arrangement, which results in overlapping of morphological and genomic characteristics. The present study has exemplified the value of an integrative taxonomic approach to solve conflicts in species delimitation in groups undergoing hybridisation.