Indigofera is a genus of the tribe Indigofereae (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae), with approximately 750 species distributed across tropical and subtropical regions of the world. In Brazil, the genus is associated mostly with the seasonally dry biomes of Caatinga and Cerrado, where 12 out of the 13 species recorded in Brazil occur. A close examination of the morphological variation in the Caatinga species showed that more than one species could be identified among the specimens referred to as I. blanchetiana. We thus propose the new species I. morroensis, which is distinguishable from I. blanchetiana by its habit, the number, shape, and hairiness of leaflets, and shape of the fruit. Indigofera morroensis occurs on sand dunes of the Morro do Chapéu municipality in Bahia state and its conservation status was assessed as Endangered. We provide the description, illustration, taxonomic comments, and distribution map for this new species, as well as an identification key for the species from Northeastern Brazil, including those that occur in the Caatinga.

The genus Carminatia, which occurs from the southwestern United States to Central America, comprises annuals with cordate to broadly ovate leaves, paniculiform capitulescences that are often spike-like or narrowly raceme-like and with mostly fasciculate capitula, and a pappus of plumose bristles. We used nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS and ETS) and the plastid psbA-trnH spacer DNA sequences to estimate phylogenetic relationships among the species of Carminatia, which have not been fully investigated using molecular data to date. All of our analyses supported the monophyly of the genus and most of them supported Brickelliastrum as sister to Carminatia. The analyses also supported the recognition of a new species, C. balsana, which is confined to the Balsas Basin in Mexico. The new species is more similar to C. recondita, but has shorter capitula, corollas, and cypselae, and the capitula are oriented to more than one side of the capitulescence. An updated taxonomic revision of the genus, including morphological descriptions, a key to the species, distribution maps, and images is provided.

The Caribbean Islands are a biodiversity hotspot characterized by a high taxonomic diversity and endemicity, suggesting that many species have yet to be discovered. Unfortunately, many of these undescribed species may go extinct before they are described because of the drastic habitat loss in these oceanic islands. In this study, we describe three new plant species of Gesneria (Gesneriaceae) that are endemic to the Massif de la Hotte in southwest Haiti, a region recently affected by extensive deforestation. Elliptical Fourier analyses of leaf shapes and DNA sequencing of five nuclear genes were used to support the species delimitations. Gesneria flava is a tall shrub with large yellow flowers, leafy sepals, and rugose leaves. Gesneria × cornuta is a hybrid between Gesneria bicolor and the newly described Gesneria flava and is morphologically intermediate between its parents. Its hybrid origin is further supported by the presence of alleles from both parents for all five nuclear genes sequenced. Finally, Gesneria radiata is a saxicolous herb with radially symmetrical corollas. The three new species described here are limited to a single mountain range in the Caribbean, the Massif de la Hotte. These recent discoveries reflect the high endemicity of this region and exemplify the urgency to conserve the remaining primary forest of Haiti in order to protect its biodiversity.

During a botanical expedition carried out by the Centro Nacional de Conservação da Flora to northern Minas Gerais, Brazil, the first records of Melastomataceae were catalogued for the Morro das Marombas, in the Serra de Montevidéu, situated on the Espinhaço Septentrional. These first records and an identification key for the melastomes from Morro das Marombas are presented. Among these records, the first collection of Marcetia viscida is documented in Minas Gerais, and two new microendemic species of Pleroma were found and are described and illustrated here. Pleroma congestifolium resembles three congeners from the Cerrado of Minas Gerais (P. ferricolum, P. martinellii, and P. trinervium) to which it is compared, and their morphological relationships and differences are discussed. Pleroma martinellii is a remarkable new species, and it can be morphologically approximated to two species (P. congestifolium and P. velutinum) from the Cerrado of Minas Gerais and Bahia. Preliminarily, we suggest the Deficient Data category as the conservation status for both species.

Hymenophyllum subg. Mecodium is subcosmopolitan and comprises ca. 35 species. Its neotropical species are poorly known taxonomically. The high degree of morphological similarity among the species and the absence of clear characters to distinguish them has confounded taxonomic treatments, resulting in the lumping of many putative segregate taxa into a broadly circumscribed Hymenophyllum polyanthos species complex. The goal of the present study was to analyze morphologically and phylogenetically the species of Hymenophyllum subg. Mecodium in the Atlantic Forest domain. Morphological studies were conducted utilizing traditional stereomicroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Additionally, Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses were performed using plastid data for seven markers: atpB, atpB-rbcL, matK, rbcL, rbcL-accD, rps4, and rps4-trnS. Seven independent lineages were identified in this study, while morphological analysis supported the delimitation of five taxa within the Atlantic Forest domain: Hymenophyllum apiculatum, H. polyanthos, H. schomburkii, H. undulatum, and H. viridissimum. One taxon, Hymenophyllum sturmii, is recognized as a cryptic species, formed by two independent evolutionary lineages, and treated here provisionally as the H. sturmii complex. A taxonomic revision for the six taxa occurring in the Atlantic Forest domain is presented, including seven new lectotypifications, along with an identification key, descriptions, and illustrations for the species. We also provide data regarding the geographical distribution and conservation status of these six species.

The legume genus, Glycine, which includes the Asian annual cultivated soybean, also includes a group of Australian perennial species comprising the subgenus Glycine. Because the subgenus Glycine represents the tertiary gene pool for one of the world's most important crops, the group has been the target of collection and study for decades, resulting in a steady growth in the number of formally recognized species, from six in the 1970s to over 20 at present, as well as a number of additional informal taxa. These studies have also produced a system of nuclear diploid “genome groups” corresponding to clades in molecular phylogenies. The aptly named G. remota is known only from a single isolated population in the Kimberley region of northwestern Australia and was named only in 2015. The species is unique within Glycine in having unifoliolate leaves; its discoverers hypothesized that G. remota, if diploid, is related to species of the I-genome that are also native to the Kimberley region. We produced low coverage short-read genome sequencing data from an herbarium specimen of G. remota. Genome size estimates from the sequencing data suggests that G. remota is a diploid, while ploidy estimation is inconclusive likely due to the history of whole genome duplication in Glycine. Phylogenomic analyses of genome-wide SNPs, as well as phylogenetic analyses of the low copy nuclear gene (histone H3D), the entire ribosomal RNA cistron, and the internal transcribed spacer all placed the species unequivocally in the diploid I-genome clade. A complete plastome sequence was also generated and its placement with a plastome phylogeny is also consistent with membership in the I-genome.

A new species of liana, Dicranostyles yrypoana (Convolvulaceae) is described from the Central Amazon rainforest in Brazil. The specimens of D. yrypoana remained with dubious identification in herbaria for at least 60 yr. This new species is distinguished from other species of Dicranostyles mainly for its tomentose leaves, in addition to its cylindric glabrous ovary, short style (0.5–0.6 mm long), and globose stigma. The specific epithet yrypoana refers to yripo, which means liana in the language of the Sateré-Mawé people that originally live in the region of occurrence of this new species. We provide morphological and palynologic descriptions, a distribution map, illustrations, taxonomy comments, an identification key, and comparisons with similar species. Dicranostyles yrypoana is informally assessed as Endangered (EN) based on IUCN criteria and guidelines.

Uma nova espécie de liana, Dicranostyles yrypoana (Convolvulaceae), é descrita para a floresta da Amazônia Central no Brasil. Os espécimes de D. yrypoana permaneceram nos herbários com identificação duvidosa por pelo menos 60 anos. Esta nova espécie é distinguida das outras espécies de Dicranostyles principalmente por suas folhas tomentosas, além de seu ovário cilíndrico e glabro, estilete curto (0.5–0.6 mm compr.) e estigma globoso. O epíteto específico yrypoana refere-se a yrypo que significa cipó na linguagem dos Sateré-Mawé, povos originários da região de ocorrência desta nova espécie. Nós fornecemos descrições morfológica e palinológica, mapa de distribuição, ilustrações, comentários taxonômicos, chave de identificação e comparação com espécies similares. Dicranostyles yrypoana é avaliada informalmente como Em Perigo (EN) baseada nos critérios e instruções da IUCN.

Like many fern lineages comprising reticulate species complexes, Polypodium s.s. (Polypodiacaeae) has a history shaped by rapid diversification, hybridization, and polyploidy that poses substantial challenges for phylogenetic inference with plastid and single-locus nuclear markers. Using target capture probes for 408 nuclear loci developed by the GoFlag project and a custom bioinformatic pipeline, SORTER, we constructed multi-locus nuclear datasets for diploid temperate and Mesoamerican species of Polypodium and five allotetraploid species belonging to the well-studied Polypodium vulgare complex. SORTER employs a clustering approach to separate putatively paralogous copies of targeted loci into orthologous matrices and haplotype phasing to infer allopolyploid haplotypes across loci, resulting in datasets amenable to both concatenated maximum likelihood and multi-species coalescent phylogenetic analyses. By comparing phylogenies derived from maximum likelihood and multi-species coalescent analyses of unphased and phased datasets, as well as evaluating discordance among gene trees and species trees, we recover support for incomplete lineage sorting within Polypodium s.s., novel relationships among diploid taxa of the Polypodium vulgare complex and its Mesoamerican sister clade, and the placement of several Polypodium species within other genera. Additionally, we were able to infer well-supported phylogenies that identified the hypothesized progenitors of the allotetraploid species, indicating that SORTER is an effective and accurate tool for reconstructing homeolog haplotypes of allopolyploids in fern taxa and other non-model organisms from target capture data.

The fern genus Didymochlaena is characterized by having scaly rhizomes and petioles, tufted and bipinnate leaves, dimidiate pinnules, and fewer than 11 sori per pinnule. For a long time only one species was widely recognized in the genus. Most recently, six and seven species from Madagascar and Asia-Pacific regions, respectively, have been recognized based on morphological and/or molecular evidence. In this monographic study we recognize 22 species worldwide, six of which are described as new: D. alpina, D. amazonica, D. cameroonensis, D. comorensis, D. cubensis, and D. mesoamericana. A key to all species is provided, and detailed descriptions, illustrations, and information on their distribution and habitats are given.

A new species of Evolvulus from the Brazilian Cerrado, a savanna biodiversity hotspot, is described here. Evolvulus aureus sp. nov. is similar to E. passerinoides, both found in Cerrado, and share erect stems (also decumbent in E. passerinoides), branched at the base, leaves spiral, flat, with acute apex and leaf base rounded, and axillary flowers. They can be distinguished by the indument type and by its color when herborized, shape of the leaf blade, visibility of secondary veins, sepal length, and anther shape. This new species is circumscribed into E. sect. Passerinoidei based on erect stem, axillary and solitary flowers, and funnelform corolla. A diagnosis, morphological description, illustrations, taxonomic notes, informal conservation status, distribution map, and an identification key are provided.

É descrita uma nova espécie de Evolvulus ocorrente no Cerrado brasileiro, uma savana considerada hotspot de biodiversidade. Evolvulus aureus sp. nov. é similar a E. passerinoides, ambos ocorrem no Cerrado brasileiro e compartilham caule ereto (também decumbente em E. passerinoides), ramificado na base, folhas espiraladas, lâmina foliar plana com ápice agudo, base foliar redonda e flores axilares. Estas espécies são distinguidas pelo tipo de indumento e sua cor quando herborizadas, forma da lâmina foliar, visibilidade das nervuras secundarias, comprimento das sépalas e forma das anteras. Esta nova espécie é posicionada em E. sect. Passerinoidei baseada no caule ereto, flores axilares e solitárias, e corola infundibuliforme. Uma diagnose, descrições morfológicas, ilustrações, notas taxonômicas, estado de conservação informal, mapa de distribuição e uma chave taxonômica são apresentados.

Costus flammulus is a new herbaceous species endemic to montane cloud forests of the volcanic cordilleras in northern Costa Rica. Costus flammulus has been mistaken for C. wilsonii, but phylogenetic evidence demonstrates that it is closely related to the widespread lowland species C. pulverulentus. Here, we use an integrated framework of species concepts to evaluate whether C. flammulus and C. pulverulentus are distinct species. First, we re-evaluate prior phylogenetic analyses to assess whether C. flammulus bifurcated from or budded off from within C. pulverulentus and whether C. flammulus is monophyletic. We then compare phenotypic traits to determine which diagnostic vegetative and inflorescence traits can be used to identify species in herbarium specimens and examine whether floral traits may confer floral isolation. We compare pollinator assemblages to examine whether pollinator specificity may contribute to reproductive isolation. Finally, we model species distributions and climatic niche overlap to assess ecogeographic isolation. We found that C. flammulus is a monophyletic species phenotypically, ecologically, and geographically distinct from C. pulverulentus and may have speciated as a peripheral isolate at the high elevation range edge of C. pulverulentus. Several lines of evidence, such as C. pulverulentus paraphyly, range size asymmetry, and C. flammulus' nested distribution and vegetative traits, suggest that C. flammulus budded off from a C. pulverulentus-like progenitor species, evolving to tolerate a colder and more seasonal montane environment.