Salvia officinalis (Lamiaceae), common or Dalmatian sage, is a Mediterranean aromatic and medicinal plant used in medicine since ancient times. Knowledge on current genetic patterns and genealogical history of its natural populations is required for both breeding efforts and species conservation. We used sequences of two chloroplast intergenic spacers, 3′rps16—5′trnK and rpl32—trnL, from 83 individuals from eight natural populations to distinguish between anthropogenic vs natural origin of four disjunct inland populations found outside of the main Adriatic range of the species. We found seven haplotypes, high total gene diversity (H_T = 0.695) and genetic differentiation (G_ST = 0.682), as well as a phylogeographic structure with two lineages, a sub-structured inland-Adriatic lineage (IAL, comprising inland and Adriatic sub-lineages) and a purely Adriatic lineage (PAL). All four inland and disjunct populations, which comprised the inland sub-lineage of IAL, were almost fixed for a distinct haplotype genealogically closely related to the ancestral haplotype and displayed other features of relict populations. Along with previous biogeographic data and other lines of evidence, assumptions on their anthropogenic origin were rejected. At present, a less diverse IAL (Hd = 0.426, π = 0.00106) and a more diverse PAL (Hd = 0.403, π = 0.00257), whose divergence was dated to the Pliocene (3.267 Mya), do not exhibit signs of recent demographic expansions and overlap on the SE Adriatic coast, a region delineated as the main glacial refugium of S. officinalis. Conservation measures accounting for the historical distinctiveness of populations and focusing on currently the most threatened populations are recommended.

This is the fourth of a series of miscellaneous contributions, by various authors, where hitherto unpublished data relevant to both the Med-Checklist and the Euro Med (or Sisyphus) projects are presented. This instalment deals with the families Amaranthaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Boraginaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Euphorbiaceae, Guttiferae, Malvaceae, Onagraceae, Orobanchaceae, Portulacaceae, Rosaceae; Commelinaceae, Gramineae, Liliaceae and Palmae. It includes new country and area records, taxonomic and distributional considerations for taxa in Amaranthus, Cardamine, Cerastium, Commelina, Euphorbia, Hieracium, Hypericum, Lilium, Melinis, Myosotis, Oenothera, Orobanche, Portulaca, Pyrus, Rubus, Senecio, Silene, Sporobolus, Tulipa, Vincetoxicum and Washingtonia, the validation of names in Malva and Polycarpon, and a corrigendum to an entry for Pilosella in the previous instalment.

A contribution to the knowledge of Cistella and Hyphodiscus in the Canary Islands is presented. Seven species are reported as new to the Canary Islands and to the Macaronesian Region: Cistella dentata, C. grevillei, C. mali, C. hungarica, C. pediformis, C. tenuicula and Hyphodiscus hymeniophilus. Descriptions and illustrations of these species based on our own observations and a key to the species currently known from the Canary Islands are provided. Closely related species are briefly discussed.

Verbascum albidiflorum Ranjbar & Nouri (Scrophulariaceae) is described and illustrated as a new species of V. [sect. Bothrosperma Murb.] subsect. Singuliflora Murb. from Kermanshah Province, W Iran. It is morphologically most similar to V. alceoides Boiss. & Hausskn. and the two species are compared with respect to gross morphology, leaf anatomy and pollen morphology. The chromosome number 2n = 38 is reported for the first time in V. albidiflorum and 2n = 48 is reported in V. alceoides, both from Kermanshah Province, Iran.

Despite more than two centuries of almost uninterrupted surveys and studies of Algerian lichenology, the history and lichen diversity of Algeria are still poorly understood. During the preparation of a forthcoming checklist of Algerian lichens it was considered necessary to provide the present historical overview of lichenological exploration of the country from 1799 to 2013, supported by a reasonably comprehensive annotated bibliography of 171 titles.

Cotton E., Borchsenius F. & Balslev H.: A revision of Axinaea (Melastomataceae). — København: Det Kongelige Dankse Videnskabernes Selskab (The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters), 2014. — Scientia Danica, Series B, Biologica, vol. 4. — ISBN 978-87-7304-385-1; ISSN 1904-5484. — 120 p., 74 line drawings, maps, and colour photos; paperback. — Price: DKK 200 (can be purchased by contacting the publisher: publ@royalacademy.dk; see http://www.royalacademy.dk/da/Publikationer/Scientia-Danica/Series-B/Axinaea).

Renner S. S.: Book review: Cotton E., Borchsenius F. & Balslev H.: A revision of Axinaea (Melastomataceae). — Willdenowia 45: 157. 2015. — Version of record first published online on 27 March 2015 ahead of inclusion in April 2015 issue; ISSN 1868-6397; © 2015 BGBM Berlin-Dahlem; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3372/wi.45.45116

Aralia duplex (Araliaceae) is described as a new species from Pinar del Río Province, W Cuba, based on a specimen initially mistaken for A. rex. Only a single individual is known in the wild, in Viñales National Park, and no reproduction has been observed there. Differential characters include the leaflet margin, numbers of umbels per inflorescence and flowers per umbel, pedicel length, numbers of floral parts and fruit shape. Illustrations and distribution maps are provided. A key is presented for the identification of A. duplex and A. rex within A. sect. Sciadodendron. As with A. rex, the conservation status of A. duplex is assessed as Critically Endangered (CR). Ex-situ-germinated plants are being kept in cultivation by members of the Cuban Botanical Gardens Network.

Primulina heterochroa (Gesneriaceae) is described and illustrated here. This new species morphologically resembles P. pungentisepala and P. minutimaculata, but it is easily distinguished from congeners by some qualitative and quantitative characters in leaf, bract, calyx, indumentum, corolla and inflorescence. The conservation status of P. heterochroa is assessed as Critically Endangered (CR) according to IUCN Red List categories and criteria.

The Levant in the E Mediterranean presents a region of remarkable species diversity due to the conjunction of four biogeographic provinces, a remarkable diversity of habitats and long human history in the area. However, little is known about the evolutionary history of plants in the Levant. Here, we analyse plastid DNA data for members of Veronica subg. Pentasepalae (Plantaginaceae) from the Levant and adjacent areas. The data support the recognition of V. orientalis, V. leiocarpa and V. polifolia as separate species. Flow cytometric analyses demonstrate the former two to be octoploid but V. polifolia as tetraploid. The Levantine lineage of V. orientalis is clearly distinct from more northern lineages of the species, as found in many animal species. However, no affinities to specific other taxa from Anatolia, whether of Mediterranean or Irano-Turanian origin, can be made at present.

Henckelia bracteata (Gesneriaceae), from the S Western Ghats in India, is described as new to science and illustrated. It is compared with the similar H. humboldtiana from S India and Sri Lanka. Its conservation status is assessed according to IUCN categories and criteria. The name Didymocarpus humboldtianus, the basionym of H. humboldtiana, is lectotypified.

Leptocereus, a genus with its centre of diversity in Cuba, has about five different assemblages of species based on floral features. However, flowers are not always available when identifying plants. Considering wood as a conservative tissue and its previous contributions to the taxonomy and systematics of flowering plants, the wood anatomy of L. arboreus and L. scopulophilus is described and compared with other species of the genus. In wood anatomy, L. arboreus, from central Cuba, differs from the western species by the presence of scalariform intervessel pits, a feature also reported for L. quadricostatus, a species of Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands. This fact might indicate that L. arboreus is probably more similar to the eastern species of the genus. Leptocereus scopulophilus is characterized by the predominance of septate fibres and solitary vessels. All the studied Cuban species of Leptocereus have druses in ray cells, a distinct characteristic in Cactoideae.

The pollen morphology of seven species representing four genera of the tribe Teedieae (Scrophulariaceae) is described and illustrated using light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Two major pollen types, 3-colporate and 4-colporate, are recognized by aperture types. Within these pollen types, subtypes are distinguished based on exine sculpture, colpi, colpus membrane, and endoaperture characters. Within type I (3-colporate), three subtypes are recognized: Ia — sculpture psilate, rarely with microperforations; Ib — sculpture microperforate and microreticulate; and Ic — sculpture macroreticulate. Type II (4-colporate) is represented by only one subtype IIa — sculpture psilate, rough, and foveolate. The revealed characteristics of pollen grains are taxonomically significant at the generic and specific levels. Our palynomorphological data are consistent with the results of molecular phylogenetic studies. Pollen grains in Teedieae are typically characterized by the colporate aperture type (probably ancestral in Scrophulariaceae) and rather primitive characters of surface and sculpture of colpi membranes. Similar palynomorphological patterns in Teedieae and Buddlejeae can be viewed as ancestral for pollen characters observed in more advanced clades of Scrophulariaceae.

In the present study, nucleotide sequences of the nrDNA ITS and the plastid DNA psbA-trnH region were used to reconstruct the phylogeny of the tribe Astereae in SW Asia using parsimony, Bayesian and likelihood methods. The ITS analysis showed that the SW Asian representatives of the tribe divide into two groups. One group arises just above the African lineage, while the second is part of the large Australasian polytomy at the crown of the tribe. SW Asian Aster, Crinitina, Galatella, Lachnophyllum and Psychrogeton appear to be non-monophyletic, whereas Chamaegeron, Eurasian Erigeron and Myriactis are monophyletic. Dichrocephala integrifolia is allied with S African members of subtribe Grangeinae. Chamaegeron and Lachnophyllum gossypinum are sister taxa and both are allied with the Bellis and Galatella group. Aster bachtiaricus is the earliest diverging branch of a large polytomy at the crown of the tribe. Psychrogeton species form three distinct clades. Heteropappus altaicus is nested in the Aster clade. Conyzanthus squamatus is nested within Symphyotrichum species.

Hypoestes canescens Hedrén & Thulin, nom. nov., is proposed for the illegitimate name H. cinerea Hedrén, non C. B. Clarke.

The type locality of the recently published Dryopetalon stenocarpum Al-Shehbaz was incorrectly cited in the protologue. The correct type locality data are provided here.

For several decades during which Carex cuprina (Sándor ex Heuff.) T. Nendtv. ex A. Kern. has been regarded as conspecific with C. otrubae Podp. there has been discussion about what is the correct application of the name C. cuprina. It is demonstrated here that the original material of the basionym of C. cuprina, i.e. C. nemorosa var. cuprina Sándor ex Heuff. on sheet BP604990 in the herbarium of the Hungarian Natural History Museum (BP) in fact belongs to the species currently known as C. leersii F. W. Schultz, as T. Egorova already made clear during her visit to that herbarium in 2003. The name C. nemorosa var. cuprina is lectotypified with this specimen. Therefore the correct name for what has been variously called C. cuprina or C. otrubae is C. otrubae, whereas C. cuprina is an earlier name for C. leersii. The name C. leersii is already conserved against the earlier homonym C. leersii Willd. and the simultaneously published heterotypic synonym C. chabertii F. W. Schultz. It is suggested here that C. leersii should be proposed for conservation also against C. cuprina.