Thallus morphology has traditionally played a major role in the classification of lichenised fungi. We have used a combined dataset of nuITS, nuLSU and mtSSU rDNA sequences to evaluate the phylogenetic relationships between the subcrustose genus Karoowia and the mostly foliose genus Xanthoparmelia. Our phylogenetic analyses using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and a Bayesian approach show that Karoowia species do not form a monophyletic group but cluster in different clades nested within Xanthoparmelia. The monophyly of Karoowia either as a separate clade from Xanthoparmelia, or nested within Xanthoparmelia is significantly rejected using alternative hypothesis testing. These results suggest that the usefulness of the phenotypic features used to define Karoowia has been overestimated because the subcrustose growth form has evolved independently in several clades within Xanthoparmelia. Other characters used to circumscribe Karoowia, such as the presence of cylindrical conidia, also occur in Xanthoparmelia, and the differences in rhizine morphology are minimal. Consequently, we propose to reduce Karoowia to synonymy with Xanthoparmelia. The enlarged genus is characterised by the presence of Xanthoparmelia-type lichenan in the hyphal cell walls and the presence of an arachiform vacuolar body in the ascospores. Fifteen new combinations in Xanthoparmelia and the new name Xanthoparmelia mucinae for Karoowia squamatica are made.

Adriana Gaudich. is a small genus in the Euphorbiaceae that is endemic to Australia. Recently, new combinations were made by others for Adriana on the premise that Croton urticoides A.Cunn. is an earlier name for A. tomentosa. The type was not seen, although it was suggested that it resided in Robert Heward’s book herbarium of assembled Allan Cunningham specimens held at the Chelsea Physic Garden. This mini-herbarium has not been rediscovered, but true type material has been found at the herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. An inspection of the type of C. urticoides held at Kew revealed that the material is Gynatrix pulchella (Willd.) Alef in the Malvaceae and its epithet predates that of C. urticoides by several years. We discuss the amplification of errors that have occurred for an incorrect name that has become accepted by several herbaria in Australia. This book herbarium cannot be located at present, and is presumed lost, although it is likely that type materials of most if not all Cunningham’s (1825) names still exist elsewhere. There is little or no evidence that the book herbarium at Chelsea Physic Garden contained type material of species described by Cunningham (1825) in Field’s Geographical Memoirs. Instead, it is likely that it consisted of material assembled many years later by Heward from Cunningham’s collections, to illustrate the taxa in Cunningham’s publications. The type of C. urticoides is fixed herein by lectotypification. We provide a summary of the nomenclature for the taxa under discussion.

The tribe Chloantheae (Prostantheroideae, Lamiaceae) currently consists of over 100 species in nine genera, all of which are endemic to Australia. Generic delimitations were assessed using chloroplast 3′ndhF and nuclear ITS nucleotide sequence data for up to seventy species. Analyses of the two datasets, independently and in combination, used maximum parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic inference methods. Topologies derived from each marker were broadly congruent, but better resolution and stronger branch support was achieved by combining the datasets. The monophyly of the Chloantheae was confirmed. Brachysola is sister to the rest of the tribe and Chloanthes, Cyanostegia and Dicrastylis (including Mallophora) are monophyletic. Although the species within Dicrastylis were only partially resolved, it appears likely that the current sectional classification of this genus will require revision. A clade containing Newcastelia, Physopsis and Lachnostachys (=Physopsideae) was recovered, but the topology indicates that the current generic circumscriptions need further investigation. A close relationship between Hemiphora elderi, Pityrodia bartlingii and P. uncinata was resolved and reflects their palynological and carpological similarities. The relationship between remaining species of Pityrodia was incompletely resolved.

Three new rare taxa allied to the conspicuous, common four-winged mallee (Eucalyptus tetraptera Turcz.) are described. E. sweedmaniana is a large-leaved and prostrate coastal mallee known only from Mount Arid, Western Australia. E. brandiana, a non-lignotuberous mallet, occupies spongolite hilltops and escarpments near the Fitzgerald River Inlet in Fitzgerald River National Park, Western Australia. A single hybrid mallet, E. arborella × brandiana, is described from the type locality of E. brandiana. Both new species and the new hybrid show potential for horticultural use, given their compact habit, large leaves and conspicuous red floral hypanthia and fruits. E. arborella × brandiana and E. brandiana are particularly at risk, being highly localised endemics that are killed by fire.

Australian Systematic Botany is an international journal devoted to the taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of all plant groups including fossils publishing papers and critical reviews that aim to advance systematic botany

The red mahogany group (Eucalyptus ser. Annulares Blakely) includes some of the most important commercial species (i.e. Eucalyptus urophylla S.T.Blake) worldwide for forestry in the subtropics and tropics. However, the taxonomic status of some species in this group is unclear and the relationship among and genetic structuring within some species is unresolved. The present study examined genetic variation at 13 microsatellite loci in E. pellita F.Muell., E. resinifera Smith and E. scias L.Johnson & K.Hill. Despite close geographical proximity and natural hybridisation in northern Queensland, E. resinifera and E. pellita remain genetically distinct as taxa. Within E. pellita, two genetic groups were clearly resolved, one from New Guinea and one from Queensland (Cape York Peninsula populations were not sampled). Geographic structuring was also evident in E. resinifera, with northern Queensland populations separating from those from Fraser Island southwards. Ecological factors and species disjunctions were implicated in the genetic substructuring of these two taxa because patterns of geographic variation aligned with biogeographical regions. E. scias was indistinguishable from southern E. resinifera and its three subspecies could not be resolved.

The present paper completes a taxonomic revision of Cassinia subg. Cassinia, a group of 35 species separated from subg. Achromolaena by the structure of its inflorescence (capitula arrangement approximately dichasial, giving rise to flat- or round-topped compound inflorescences, as opposed to the irregular or alternate arrangement of capitula in subg. Achromolaena, where the overall shape of the inflorescence is conical or elongate). The seven species of Cassinia sect. Cassinia (C. aculeata, C. thinicola, C. wilsoniae, C. longifolia, C. aureonitens, C. trinerva and C. cinerea) are keyed, described and illustrated, with discussion of ecology, distribution and variation. Cassinia aculeata subsp. nova-anglica Orchard, C. thinicola Orchard, C. wilsoniae Orchard and C. cinerea Orchard are described as new. Cassinia aculeata is a variable and widespread species. Four morphological variants are described and discussed, although not formally named. Previously suggested hybridisation between C. aculeata and Ozothamnus obcordatus is discussed, and dismissed. A new subspecies, narrowly endemic to the New England region of New South Wales (NSW), and separated by 350 km from subsp. aculeata, is described. Cassinia longifolia is similarly widespread and variable, particularly in indumentum and leaf shape. Again, four more or less distinct local morphological variants are described, but they are not formally named because of problems with satisfactory circumscription. Cassinia thinicola is newly segregated from C. aculeata. It is a strikingly distinct species, confined to coastal habitats north and south of Newcastle, distinguished by its (usually) lack of hairs on the upper leaf surface, ochre-coloured inflorescences and compact habit. Cassinia wilsoniae, confined to Wyperfeld National Park in western Victoria, has hitherto been largely overlooked, with specimens assigned to a broadly circumscribed ‘C. uncata’, or C. aculeata or C. longifolia. It is geographically widely separated from all of these taxa. It is unusual in the genus, in being confined largely to the summits of consolidated sand dunes. It has rather small inflorescences with few capitula, and these are ochre-coloured. The leaf margins are strongly revolute, almost completely covering the midrib below, unlike related taxa where the midrib remains uncovered. Cassinia cinerea is a rare species confined to south-eastern Queensland, and hitherto confused with C. laevis and C. collina, both in subg. Achromolaena (and thus with conical inflorescences). It also differs from both in a range of indumentum and leaf characters. The remaining, previously recognised, species are redescribed in detail, and their nomenclature, variation, ecology and distribution are discussed as required.

Australian Systematic Botany is an international journal devoted to the taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of all plant groups including fossils publishing papers and critical reviews that aim to advance systematic botany

A taxonomic revision is presented of the Australasian legume genus Gompholobium Sm. The group includes 44 species, the following six of them newly described here: Gompholobium gairdnerianum Chappill, G. glutinosum Chappill, G. karijini Chappill, G. pungens Chappill, G. roseum Chappill and G. wonganense Chappill. Gompholobium asperulum (S.Moore) Crisp is recognised here as a nomenclatural synonym of G. shuttleworthii Meisn. The taxon that has been known under the former name is renamed as Gompholobium cinereum Chappill. Gompholobium venustum R.Br. var. laeve Benth. is recognised as a distinct species, G. cyaninum Chappill, the new epithet recognising the unique blue standard and wings of this species. Gompholobium aristatum var. muticum Benth., G. aristatum var. laxum Benth. and G. virgatum var. aspalathoides (A.Cunn. ex Benth.) Benth. are all raised to specific status. Gompholobium simplicifolium (F.Muell. & Tate) Crisp is excluded.

Plastid trnT–F and atpB–rbcL spacer sequences as well as AFLP fingerprints are utilised to infer phylogenetic relationships of Dendroligotrichum and Polytrichadelphus taxa (Polytrichaceae) in the palaeoaustral region. Phylogenies based on DNA sequence data support the monophyly of each genus. Relationships within Dendroligotrichum remain ambiguous owing to low sequence divergence. AFLP fingerprinting, however, allows a clear distinction of all included Dendroligotrichum and Polytrichadelphus taxa at the species level. The morphological, distributional, ecological and molecular differences justify the recognition of the following three species in Dendroligotrichum: D. dendroides (Brid. ex Hedw.) Broth. and D. squamosum (Hook.f. & Wilson) Cardot in southern South America, as well as D. microdendron (Müll. Hal.) G.L.Sm. in New Zealand; and the following two species in Polytrichadelphus: P. magellanicus (Hedw.) Mitt. s.str. in southern South America and P. innovans (Müll. Hal.) A.Jäger in Australia and New Zealand. For Polytrichadelphus, the molecular topologies correspond with a vicariance scenario, with a basic split of taxa in the palaeoaustral region followed by migration of southern South American taxa northwards into the Neotropics. In Dendroligotrichum, substitutions and indels in the trnL intron and atpB–rbcL spacer are ambiguous in supporting either a basic split between the South American species and D. microdendron, similar to the one in Polytrichadelphus, or a trans-oceanic dispersal event between New Zealand and southern South America.