Phylogenetic analyses, biogeography, morphology, and ecology confirm that Helenium scaposum is a distinct species belonging to genus Helenium. Within Helenium, it appears that H. scaposum is most closely related to members of Helenium sect. Leptopoda. The morphological resemblance of H. scaposum to H. drummondii, H. pinnatifidum, and H. vernale justifies further study to better understand relationships among these species.

Cheilanthes viridis (Pteridaceae), green cliffbrake, is reported as new to the floras of Texas and Louisiana. This African native has long been cultivated as an ornamental fern and likely escaped to become naturalized in eastern Texas and adjacent Louisiana. The expanding distribution of the taxon in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas is discussed. Classification and taxonomy are also reviewed.

Eight of the ten genera of the Guiana Highlands shrubby Mutisieae were sequenced for the ITS and ETS of the nuclear ribosomal DNA. Results from phylogenetic analyses of the sequence data are congruent with earlier reports that support two independent introductions from different lineages of the basal Asteraceae resulting in the diversification of these taxa in the Guiana Highlands. The two clades segregated according to corolla symmetry. The five genera with bilabiate corollas, Achnopogon, Duidaea, Eurydochus, Gongylolepis and Neblinaea, were supported with members of subfamily Stifftioideae whereas those with actinomorphic corollas, Chimantaea, Stenopadus and Stomatochaeta, constitute a monophyletic group sister to Wunderlichia and strongly supported in the Wunderlichioideae. Resolution, but not statistical support, was found for relationships within the Guiana Highlands shrubby Mutisieae.