used in Chinese and Japanese traditional (Kampo) medicines. Although about 35 species belonging to the genus Ephedra are distributed in Eurasia, North America, and South America, only a few species contain pharmacologically active ephedrine alkaloids and are used for medicinal purposes. The Japanese Pharmacopoeia defines Ephedra Herb as dried aerial parts of Ephedra sinica, E. intermedia and E....

Data is presented in support of a phylogenetic reconstruction of the species-rich early-divergent angiosperm genus Goniothalamus (Annonaceae) (Tang et al., Mol. Phylogenetic Evol., 2015) [1], inferred using chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) sequences. The data includes a list of primers for amplification and sequencing for nine cpDNA regions: atpB-rbcL, matK, ndhF, psbA-trnH, psbM-trnD, rbcL, trnL-F, trn...

DNA sequences from the chloroplast trnL-F region of 154 Rubiaceae and 11 outgroup taxa were analyzed cladistically. An emphasis was placed on the tribes Rondeletieae, Sipaneeae, and Condamineeae. Sipaneeae are not close to Rondeletieae and belong in the Ixoroideae. There is no support for a widely distributed Rondeletieae in a broad sense. Instead, Rondeletieae sensu stricto form an almost enti...

A new species of Primulaceae, Primula undulifolia, is described from the hilly area of Hunan province in south-central China. Its morphology and distributional range suggest that it is allied to P. kwangtungensis, both adapted to subtropical climate, having contiguous distribution and similar habitat, growing on shady and moist cliffs. Petioles, scapes and pedicels of them are densely covered w...

Melilotus comprises 19 species, while the phylogenetic relationships between species remain unclear. In the present work, three chloroplast genes, rbcL, matK, trnL-F, and one nuclear region, ITS (internal transcribed spacer) belonging to 48 populations of 18 species of Melilotus were sequenced and phylogenetic trees were constructed to study their interspecific relationships. Based on the phylo...

Croton scarciesii (Euphorbiaceae-Crotonoideae), a rheophytic shrub from West Africa, is shown to have been misplaced in Croton for 120 years, having none of the diagnostic characters of that genus, but rather a set of characters present in no known genus of the family. Pollen analysis shows that the new genus Karima belongs to the inaperturate crotonoid group. Analysis of a concatenated molecul...

Myriocolea irrorata is an endemic rheophytic liverwort known from a few localities in the Eastern Andes of Ecuador. Morphologically it belongs to the Cololejeunea-Tuyamaella clade of Lejeuneaceae, however, due to its exclusively Radula-type branching, transversely inserted, hollow leaves, large size, and an extremely high number of clustered gynoecia it has often been regarded as an isolated el...

The Commelinaceae are a pantropical family of monocotyledonous herbs. Previous phylogenies in Commelinaceae have emphasized sampling among genera. We extended this previous work by sampling multiple species within some of the largest genera of Commelinaceae (especially Commelina and Tradescantia , and also including Callisia , Cyanotis, Gibasis, and Murdannia ), and by sequencing noncoding regi...

The formerly monotypic genus Paranecepsia Radcl.-Sm. is expanded with the description and illustration of a second species, andrafiabensis Barberá & O.Lachenaud sp. nov. Molecular phylogenetic analyses plastid rbcL trnL-F data confirm sister relationship between new species P. alchorneifolia Radcl.-Sm., as members alchorneoids clade. notable for expanding character states (now including...

In the present study, we describe and illustrate a remarkable new species of Syngonanthus from South America (Bolivia, Brazil and Peru). This new species is quickly distinguished from all species in the genus by trimerous and bisexual flowers, a unique set of characteristics in Syngonanthus. Complementary to this study, sequences of 33 species were downloaded from GenBank and four species had s...