Meiotic chromosome numbers are reported for 12 species in eight genera of Acanthaceae from Madagascar. Chromosome numbers of 11 species are reported for the first time. Counts in Mendoncia (n = 19) and Neuracanthus (n = 20) are the first for these genera. A new chromosome number (n = 30) is reported in Justicia. Systematic implications of the chromosome counts are addressed and basic chromosome numbers for these eight genera of Malagasy Acanthaceae are discussed.

Previous analyses of Asteropeia and Physena have not compared the wood anatomy of these genera to those of Caryophyllales s.l. Molecular evidence shows that the two genera form a clade that is a sister group of the core Caryophyllales. Synapomorphies of the Asteropeia—Physena clade include small circular alternate pits on vessels, presence of vasicentric tracheids plus fiber-tracheids, presence of abaxial-confluent plus diffuse axial parenchyma, and presence of predominantly uniseriate rays. These features are analyzed with respect to habit and ecology of the two genera. Solitary vessels, present in both genera, are related to the presence of vasicentric tracheids. Autapomorphies in the two genera seem related to adaptations by Physena as a shrub of moderately dry habitats (e.g., narrower vessel elements, abundant vasicentric tracheids, square to erect cells in rays) as compared to alternate character expressions that seem related to the arboreal habit and humid forest ecology of Asteropeia. The functional significance of vasicentric tracheids and fiber-tracheids in dicotyledons is briefly reviewed in the light of wood anatomy of the two genera.

Ornithocephalus aristatus, a new species from Panama, is described and illustrated. Among the species of the genus Ornithocephalus, it can be distinguished by the nonresupinate flowers, the sepals each provided with a flexuous awn half as long as the sepal itself, the porrect petals with revolute margins, the hastate lip with triangularovate, erose lateral lobes, the linear, acute midlobe, conduplicate and subreflexed at apex, and the disc with a bilobed, obreniform callus provided with a conical tuft of stiff hairs. A key to the species of Ornithocephalus from Panama is provided.

Symplocos pachycarpa is described as new, and an illustration is provided. This species grows in cloud forests and oak-pine forests of Oaxaca and Guerrero, Mexico, and is most similar to S. citrea. A key is provided to distinguish S. pachycarpa from related Mexican species.

Nine new species of Solanum and two of Capsicum are described from Bolivia. Notes are provided on some other species, including the complex typification of Solanum aridum. Capsicum caballeroi, C. ceratocalyx, Solanum chalmersii, S. clandestinum, S. comarapanum, S. complectens, S. monanthemon, S. moxosense, S. pedemontanum, S. saturatum, and S. whalenii are described and illustrated, and a new name, S. scuticum, is proposed for the species previously known as S. tabacifolium.

A new species, Brongniartia papyracea (Fabaceae: Faboideae), from southern Jalisco and southwestern Michoacán, is described and illustrated. Its morphological affinities with B. podalyrioides from central Mexico are discussed, and habitat data are given.

Luziola is a small genus from aquatic environments of the New World. The most widespread species in the genus is L. peruviana. Morphological variation has been documented for this species throughout its entire range of distribution, however this variation has been difficult to characterize. A population aggregation analysis was performed in order to determine how many species can be identified when analyzing characters from the individuals of this taxon as well as with individuals from closely related taxa such as L. divergens, L. doelliana, and L. pittieri. Multivariate analysis, ANOVA and ANCOVA analyses were also performed to detect if quantitative morphological variation is related to altitude and latitude. Results indicate that within this complex only one species should be recognized, referable to L. peruviana, and that plants near the equator are larger, and have larger lemmas and paleas in both female and male flowers. An identification key for the nine species now recognized in Luziola is included.

A new species of Diplazium, D. condorense from Ecuador, with free veins and concolorous blade scales, is described and illustrated. It is apparently most closely related to species of Callipteris, having anastomosing veins and scales with black margins and teeth.

Three new species from Bolivia and Peru (Adiantum solomonii, A. tryonii, and A. tuomistoanum) are described and illustrated.

Passiflora boticarioana , a new species of subgen. Passiflora, supersect. Stipulata, sect. Dysosmia, from the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is described, illustrated, and compared with morphologically similar species.

Blechnum moranianum is a new species similar to B. loxense, and B. nigrum is segregated from the B. fragile complex. Both are described and illustrated as result of the author's taxonomic fern work in Costa Rica.