The new species Arundo hellenica is described from Greece. It is related to A. plinii but differs in smaller size of all morphological structures and in the configuration of the lemma, which, below the awn, is entire at the apex, not bifid as usually in the genus Arundo. The new species, probably a Greek endemic strongly confined to disturbed habitats, behaves as an aggressive weed and may become invasive in other countries.

Continuing a series of miscellaneous contributions, by various authors, where hitherto unpublished data relevant to the Med-Checklist project are presented, this instalment deals with the families Amaranthaceae, Basellaceae, Campanulaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Compositae, Labiatae, Leguminosae, Lythraceae, Ranunculaceae, Rubiaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Umbelliferae; Cyperaceae, Gramineae, Liliaceae, and Pontederiaceae. It includes new country and area records, taxonomic and distributional considerations. A new species of Scorzonera is described and illustrated. New combinations are validated in Cladanthus.

The floristic results of journeys to the Aegean islands of Lesvos and Limnos over several years are presented. Retama monosperma is added to, and Asphodeline brevicaulis confirmed for the flora of Greece, and 14 new records for Lesvos and 31 for Limnos are given.

Chorological and taxonomic data on three poorly known species of the genus Aichryson on the Canary Islands, A. bollei, A. brevipetalum and A. porphyrogennetos, are provided. A. bituminosum from Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, is described as a species new to science and illustrated. Illustrations and emended descriptions are also given for A. bollei and A. brevipetalum, and a key to all pubescent-leaved species of A. sect. Aichryson is provided.

The NW African Hypochaeris arachnoidea is reinstated, a detailed description of this annual, a full synonymy including lectotypifications, and a key to the Moroccan species of Hypochaeris are provided. Chromosome numbers and karyotype information for six Moroccan Hypochaeris species from ten populations (including one population from Ireland) are presented and compared with literature data on karyotypes in the genus.

The grass species Beckeropsis laxior and Heteranthoecia guineensis are reported as new to the flora of Benin and are briefly characterised.

Based on own collections made in the southern governorates of the Republic of Yemen between 1997 and 2002, 110 new and noteworthy records of vascular plants are provided. Five taxa, Iphigenia oliveri, Kleinia squarrosa, Parthenium hysterophorus, Rhus glutinosa subsp. neoglutinosa and Poskea socotrana are recorded as new for the Arabian Peninsula, and Pistacia aethiopica is confirmed; 23 species are recorded as new and four are confirmed for mainland Yemen; 77 species are recorded as new for the southern governorates of Yemen or larger parts of them. Brief comments are given on the phytogeography of the taxa. Rhus flexicaulis, a species hitherto considered an endemic of SW Arabia, is found conspecific with the widespread African R. vulgaris, and provides, for priority reasons, the correct name for this species; the most recently described R. gallagheri from Oman is also conspecific with it. Justicia areysiana is accepted as the correct name for the S Arabian endemic formerly known as Bentia fruticulosa.

Campylanthus hubaishanii, a dwarf shrub from the coastal mountains of southeastern Yemen, is described as a species new to science and illustrated. It is the fifth species of the genus known from mainland Yemen. The new species is compared and a closer relationship suggested with C. sedoides from coastal Jiddat al Harasis, central Oman. Based on collections made by the authors during the last years, new data on the distribution and variation of C. antonii, C. junceus and C. pungens in Yemen are also provided.

The nothogenus ×Cyathidaria is established to accommodate various natural hybrids between species of Cyathea and Cnemidaria, all characterised by abortive spores and morphologically intermediate between their respective parent species. ×Cyathidaria acunae, the natural hybrid between Cnemidaria horrida and Cyathea aspera is a newly described nothospecies from Cuba. Four new combinations in ×Cyathidaria are made.

The revision of Lantana sect. Lantana for the projects “Flora of the Republic of Cuba” and “Flora of the Greater Antilles” confirmed the presence of 10 species and 16 infraspecific taxa in the territory. Their diagnostic characters are specified, two new forms are described (L. camara f. caffertyi and L. flava f. sandersii), the rank of three taxa is modified, and eight new combinations are established.

Three new interspecific hybrids of Alsophila have been detected in Cuba: A. ×boytelii in the Sierra Maestra range, E Cuba; A. ×medinae in the Trinidad Mountains, Central Cuba; and A. ×fagildei in the Guantánamo province, E Cuba. They have spores of normal appearance and might therefore well be fertile, as suggested by the presence, in the Gran Piedra area, of a large population of A. ×boytelii; a full range of intermediates linking this hybrid with its parent species suggests the occurrence of backcrossing.

Cyathea ×calolepis was first collected by Wright in 1856 or 1857 and after 1859 was not found by any other collector until 1981 when it was rediscovered on the Gran Piedra range in the Sierra Maestra. It has since been collected in several places in the Santiago de Cuba province, twice in the Granma and once in the Guantánamo province, all in E Cuba. It has long been assumed to represent the hybrid between C. arborea and another, unknown tree fern species. This assumption is here corroborated, and it is demonstrated that the second parent is the E Cuban endemic C. strigillosa.

Encyclia altissima, so far known from the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Haiti, is recorded for Cuba from the Sierra de Mariana, Guantánamo province. For the Cuban population, a description and illustration, distribution data and conservation status are given.

Two new species of Araceae from South America are described and illustrated. The one is Anthurium ensifolium from Bahia, eastern Brazil, which is tentatively placed in A. sect. Urospadix subsect. Obscureviridia. It seems close to A. cleistanthum, a poorly known species from Espírito Santo, Brazil, and also resembles A. erskinei from Bahia. The other is Gorgonidium bulbostylum from Andean Bolivia, which differs from all other species of the genus by the unusual aspect of the style that has an inflated, more or less ovoid apical portion. The stigma is also peculiar in being globose and conspicuously lobed, with lobes upwardly directed.

The genus Ochagavia is revised. Four species, O. andina, O. carnea, O. elegans and O. litoralis, are recognized, all are endemic to Chile. A key to the species, descriptions, illustrations, full synonymies and data on the distribution and ecology are given. The new combinations O. litoralis and O. andina are validated, and several names are typified. Relationships of the genus within the subfamily Bromelioideae are discussed.

An exploration in the Nomos of Dodecanisos, SE Aegean, Greece, mainly on the islands Kalimnos and Kos, and to a lesser extent on Telendos and Nisiros, revealed the presence of 290 lichen species. Of these, 12 were not recorded before from Greece, and four are described as new to science: Acarospora pseudofuscata, Buellia epifimbriata, Caloplaca aegaea and Pertusaria pseudoparotica. An annotated catalogue is presented, which includes notes on lichen records from Santorini and Paros. The lichen flora does not show any special affinity with the nearby Turkish mainland, in striking contrast to the phanerogam flora. It is similar to that of the Paros archipelago (Central Aegean Islands) and differences can be explained by different substrate availability and chance dispersal (island effect). The lichen flora of Santorini, a vulcanic island recolonized 3500 years ago, differs by a larger representation of widespread species. 15 species appear to have a restricted, eastern distribution in the Mediterranean.