Petrosavia sakurai, a species representing a new familial and order record of flora of Myanmar, is described and illustrated. Peterosavaia is characterized by scalelike leaves on stem usually 1-2 cm apart, inflorescence a raceme, bracts slightly shorter than pedicel, and tepals adnate for ca. 1/3 its length to ovary.

In order to discuss whether the development of the female organ is normal, the development of megasporogenesis and female gametophyte of Bambusa multiplex was studied by the method of traditional paraffin section and SEM. The results showed that the ovary had one anatropous ovule, bitegmic and tenuinucellate. A female archesporial cell developed into megaspore mother cell directly, linear tetrad. The functional megaspore near the micropyle developed into mature embryo sac with eight nucleuses in 7 cells, including 3 antipodal cells arranged transversely near the chalazal and egg apparatus (1 egg cell and 2 synergid cells) near the micropylar end and a central cell (2 polar nucleus). In addition, the corresponding development relationship between pistil and stamen was established, which discovered the anthers and stigmas of B. multiplex matured at the same time. The corresponding development relationship between pistil and stamen may provide the reference for the developmental phase of embryo sac according to the anther length. During the pistil development process abnormal structures of ovaries may be one of the reasons of the low seed rate.

Pteroceras teres (Blume) Holttum (Orchidaceae), an epiphytic orchid from Yunnan is newly recorded for China. A detailed description of the species and photos are provided. This species is similar to P. compressum (Blume) Holttum, from which it clearly differs in having a terete rachis, spirally arranged yellow flowers and a spur with the bladdery apex laterally compressed, more or less twisted.

The genus Hymenandra (A. DC.) A. DC and its type species H. wallichii A. DC. are for the first time reported from China. Recently in the course of naming the specimens of Ardisia in the herbarium of Kunming Institute of Botany (KUN), one of the authors came across some specimens that were evidently misidentified. After a close examination we found that they are actually the Himalayan species——Hymenandra wallichii. It is new to the flora of China.

Sidastrum Baker f. (Malvaceae) is reported as a newly naturalized genus in China. Sidastrum micranthum (A. St.-Hil.) Fryxell was found in Guangdong, China for the first time. The voucher specimens are deposited in Tropical Crops Genetic Resources Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Hainan (ATCH).

Habenaria lindleyana Steud., a newly recorded species of Habenaria from Guangxi, China is reported. Its morphological description and photos are provided. The vouchers are deposited in the Herbarium of Guangxi Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBK).

To explore the molecular mechanisms of Ipomoea cairica invasiveness insouth China, the de novo transcriptomes from I. cairica and two related species, I. digitata and I. nil,were sequenced and assembled.There were5 6551 all-unigenes obtained by assembling the reads, among them 56522 all-unigenes were annotated, including 7815, 15615, and 180201 all-unigenes in GO, COG and KEGG databases, respectively. Moreover, the activities of NR and GS in I.cairica, keyenzyme in metabolic pathway for nitrogen, were greater than those in related species. In addition, the transcriptome data showed that the genes of key enzymes in secondary metabolism, such aspal, 4cl, cad, chs, and chi, had synergic differential expressionin I. cairica, I. digitata and I. nil. The production synthesis from metabolic pathway could play a key role in stress-resistant, growth and allelopathy of I. cairica. The RT-qPCR verification results of key genes were similar to those from transcriptome.Therefore, the result of the present research might explain partly the successful invasiveness of I. cairicain South China at the level of molecular biology. (Less)

Organ size is an important morphological trail in plants, and shows significant differences among species. Organ growth is influenced by environmental factors, such as light and nutrients; however, it is determined by the intrinsic information of cell number and cell size. A large number of genes involved in regulation of cell proliferation and/or cell expansion have been identified, and their up-regulated or down-regulated expression change organ size and accelerate organ growth by means of transcription regulation, protein synthesis and modification, hormonal regulation and cell-wall loosening, and so on. In spite of this, these genes act through relative independent pathways, making it difficult to demonstrate an integrated regulation network in plants. Further challenges will be the regulation pattern and molecular changes in different plant species. Several genes participated in organ growth have been used in crop breeding, and produced significantly large crops. Similarly, characterization of the genes involved in organ size control of Chinese herbs to artificially promote organ size and morphology at the molecular level will contribute to overcome the shortage and endangerment of medicinal plants.

We synonymize three names of the genus ＂Ligularia＂ from China, including ＂L. brassicoides＂ Hand.-Mazz., ＂L. ianthochaeta＂ C. C. Chang, and ＂L. paradoxa＂ Hand.-Mazz. var. ＂palmatifida＂ S. W. Liu & T. N. Ho.