A new fossil flora from central Queensland, of late Eocene or early Oligocene age, has yielded a diverse assemblage of flowering plants and ferns, including the first evidence of horsetails (Equisetum L.) from the Cenozoic of Australia. The fossils assigned to Equisetum are based on a stem fragment, 2–3 mm in diameter, and spreading leaf sheath and diaphragm. The leaf sheath is interpreted to consist of ~24–30 leaves. The spatial arrangement of regularly arranged depressions in a section of the outer cortex is interpreted as evidence of the leaf vascular traces, and indicates a similar number of vascular traces. This specimen provides the youngest evidence of the genus from Australia and indicates that Equisetum survived for at least another 50 million years after it was thought to be extinct in Australia. Whereas molecular data for extant species of Equisetum collectively suggest a comparatively recent origin and radiation, the fossil record of the genus indicates a significantly longer and more complex history. Fossils, such as the new specimen from Makowata, Queensland, will, therefore, play a key role in understanding the history and past distribution of Equisetum in Australia. A key challenge is to assemble and characterise the morphological traits of these living and fossil plants to better understand the origins, history and radiation of this remarkable group of euphyllophytes.

The eucalypts, which include Eucalyptus, Angophora and Corymbia, are native to Australia and Malesia and include over 800 named species in a mixture of diverse and depauperate lineages. We assessed the fit of the eucalypt taxonomic classification to a phylogeny of 711 species scored for DNA sequences of plastid matK and psbA–trnH, as well as nuclear internal transcribed spacer and external transcribed spacer. Two broadly similar topologies emerge from both maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses, showing Angophora nested within Corymbia, or Angophora sister to Corymbia. The position of certain species-poor groups on long branches fluctuated relative to the three major Eucalyptus subgenera, and positions of several closely related species within those subgenera were unstable and lacked statistical support. Most sections and series of Eucalyptus were not recovered as monophyletic. We calibrated these phylogenies against time, using penalised likelihood and constraints obtained from fossil ages. On the basis of these trees, most major eucalypt subgenera arose in the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene. All Eucalyptus clades with taxa occurring in south-eastern Australia have crown ages <20 million years. Several eucalypt clades display a strong present-day geographic disjunction, although these clades did not have strong phylogenetic statistical support. In particular, the estimated age of the separation between the eudesmids (Eucalyptus subgenus Eudesmia) and monocalypts (Eucalyptus subgenus Eucalyptus) was consistent with extensive inland water bodies in the Eocene. Bayesian analysis of macroevolutionary mixture rates of net species diversification accelerated in five sections of Eucalyptus subgenus Symphyomyrtus, all beginning 2–3 million years ago and associated with semi-arid habitats dominated by mallee and mallet growth forms, and with open woodlands and forests in eastern Australia. This is the first time that a calibrated molecular study has shown support for the rapid diversification of eucalypts in the recent past, most likely driven by changing climate and diverse soil geochemical conditions.

Taxonomic studies of Tephrosia Pers. (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae, Millettieae) in South America have highlighted the need to resolve some nomenclatural issues. Five new synonyms are proposed and a new species is described. Nine lectotypes of accepted names and synonyms, and one neotype, are here designated. An identification key to the taxa occurring in South America is also presented.

One new species of Lindernia All. is described (L. yarun Wannan) from south-eastern Queensland. The following three species of Lindernia are newly recognised for Queensland: L. clausa (F.Muell.) F.Muell., L. procumbens (Krock.) Philcox and L. rotundifolia (L.) Alston. Illustrations of flowers, fruits, seeds, leaves, stem anatomy, and specimens are provided. Notes on habitat, distribution and conservation status are also provided. A key to eastern Australian species of Lindernia, Bonnaya Link & Otto and Yamazakia W.R.Barker, Y.S.Liang & Wannan is provided.

Two additional species of the liverwort genus Chiastocaulon Carl, namely, C. fasciculatum M.A.M.Renner sp. nov. and C. pachycephalum (De Not.) Herzog, are reported from two mountain tops in the north of the Queensland Wet Tropics Bioregion, namely, Mount Finnigan and Thornton Peak. Given the recent completion of a revision for Chiastocaulon in Australia, the new species provides another cogent demonstration that the bryophyte flora of the Wet Tropics Bioregion is incompletely explored and documented. The new species Chiastocaulon fasciculatum is similar to C. dendroides (Nees) Carl, but can be distinguished by leaf shape and dentition, among other characters. The leaves of C. fasciculatum are ovate and bear two or three prominent equally sized teeth, and the ventral leaf margin bears two to eight smaller teeth, whereas the leaves of C. dendroides are elliptic and bear two unequally sized teeth, the postical of which is largest, and the ventral leaf margin is entire. Chiastocaulon fasciculatum, as far as currently known, is endemic to the Wet Tropics Bioregion. Chiastocaulon pachycephalum, of which the type is from Borneo, is reported for Australia for the first time from specimens collected on Mount Finnigan.

The following three similar Amanita spp. are described: Amanita djarilmari E.M.Davison, A. gardneri E.M.Davison from the south-west of Western Australia and A. millsii E.M.Davison & G.M.Gates (=A. sp. 10 ZLY-2014 HKAS 77322 in KUN) from Tasmania. All have a white- or pale-coloured pileus and white universal veil, but differ in the shape of the bulb, spore shape, and structure of the universal veil. All are from subgenus Lepidella section Phalloideae. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these species cannot be separated on the basis of data derived from nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed-spacer sequences. They can be separated in a multi-locus phylogeny of the 28S nuclear ribosomal large-subunit rRNA region, RNA polymerase-II region, ß-tubulin region and translation elongation-factor 1-a region. Amanita djarilmari, A. gardneri, A. millsii and two other previously described species in section Phalloideae from southern Australia (A. eucalypti and A. marmorata) cluster in Clade IX. These, together with other species in this clade, segregate into two lineages, namely, Clade IX A, with a white or pale pileus, and Clade IX B, with a brown pileus. Solvent extraction, followed by liquid-chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry of A. djarilmari, A. eucalypti, A. gardneri and A. marmorata basidiomes did not detect the highly toxic amatoxins a-amanitin and ß-amanitin, but did detect the phallotoxins phallacidin and phalloidin.

Phylogenetic analyses based on 10 molecular markers unquestionably support a sister relationship between Albidella nymphaeifolia and the Caldesia oligococca species group. The type species of the genus Caldesia is excluded from this monophylum. These results are unsurprising in the light of morphological characteristics, but require three new combinations in Albidella to render both Albidella and Caldesia monophyletic. These new combinations are provided here. Under the new circumscription, Albidella shows a disjunct distribution pattern, with one species in the Caribbean region and three species distributed from tropical Africa and along the margins of the Indian Ocean to Australia.

Perennial grasses commonly known as ‘spinifex’ (Triodia R.Br.) are iconic Australian plants, predominantly found in the arid interior of the continent. In some areas, such as the economically important Pilbara region of Western Australia, current species taxonomy does not account for observed diversity. Previous morphological and molecular studies of Triodia basedowii E.Pritz. and related species have revealed multiple unnamed lineages requiring taxonomic recognition. Here, we describe and name eight new species of Triodia, including T. birriliburu B.M.Anderson, T. chichesterensis B.M.Anderson, T. glabra B.M.Anderson & M.D.Barrett, T. infesta B.M.Anderson & M.D.Barrett, T. mallota B.M.Anderson & M.D.Barrett, T. nana B.M.Anderson, T. scintillans B.M.Anderson & M.D.Barrett, and T. vanleeuwenii B.M.Anderson & M.D.Barrett. We also provide recircumscriptions and revised descriptions for T. basedowii, T. lanigera Domin, T. concinna N.T.Burb. and T. plurinervata N.T.Burb. A key to species and photographs are included.

In the present study, we measured spatiotemporal properties of ecological niches of amphibians in China and tested the relative importance of various niche-diversity metrics for explaining the evolutionary distinctiveness-weighted extinction risk (EDGE) of amphibian species. We applied the hierarchical partitioning technique on the phylogenetically independent contrasts of the niche covariates and EDGE of amphibians, for the purpose of removing the influence of evolutionary inertia among species. As a comparison, phylogenetic least-square general regression (PLGS) was also conducted. The results showed that EDGE was high for those amphibian species of China identified as Critically Endangered or Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Niche fragmentation dimension (NFD) and niche position (NP) were the top two predictors across partial correlation analyses, hierarchical variation partitioning, PLGS and multiple regression analyses. Most temporal niche properties were not significantly associated with the EDGE index of amphibians. Variation partitioning analysis showed that the spatial component of niche measures explained the largest proportion of total variation in EDGE (~31%), whereas the temporal component of niche properties explained ~8% of the variation. The significantly negative role of NFD and extinction risk of amphibians in China may be attributed to a reduced rescue effect, habitat geometry, and local extinction in species with large and continuous distributional ranges.

Recent molecular evidence supports the transfer of two Australian endemic species, Austrocynoglossum latifolium (R.Br.) R.R.Mill and Cynoglossum suaveolens R.Br., to the genus Hackelia Opiz as H. latifolia (R.R.Mill) Dimon & M.A.M.Renner, comb. nov., and H. suaveolens (R.Br.) Dimon & M.A.M.Renner, comb. nov. Hackelia latifolia comprises two morphological entities that, although sharing the procumbent-prostrate habit and production of elongated internodes and frondose bracts in the inflorescence, differ in a range of qualitative and quantitative micro-morphological characters. Hackelia latifolia has few, widely spaced, thorn-like trichomes on stems, a glabrous abaxial lamina surface, and mericarps with free glochids densely and evenly distributed over the outer surface, and a rectangular cicatrix at the mericarp apex, which is beaked. The other entity has many densely packed cellular trichomes on the stems, trichomes on the abaxial leaf lamina, and mericarps with a wing formed by basally connate glochids, and a triangular cicatrix located centrally on the inner mericarp surface. For the latter, we propose the new species Cynoglossum torvum Dimon & M.A.M.Renner, and by implication suggest that H. latifolia is polyphyletic as previously circumscribed. Whereas H. latifolia s.s. is widespread along the south-eastern coast of Australia from Tasmania to south-eastern Queensland, Cynoglossum torvum is restricted to the tablelands of north-eastern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland. We compare C. torvum with the other Australian Cynoglossum L. species, C. australe R.Br., confirm previous observations of variation in mericarp morphology, and suggest that further investigation to resolve species circumscription is required given this variation.