A Taxonomically-verified and Vouchered Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the Republic of Guinea.

The Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the Republic of Guinea (CVPRG) is a specimen-based, expert-validated knowledge product, which provides a concise synthesis and overview of current knowledge on 3901 vascular plant species documented from Guinea (Conakry), West Africa, including their accepted names and synonyms, as well as their distribution and status within Guinea (indigenous or introduced, endemic or not). The CVPRG is generated automatically from the Guinea Collections Database and the Guinea Names Backbone Database, both developed and maintained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in collaboration with the staff of the National Herbarium of Guinea. A total of 3505 indigenous vascular plant species are reported of which 3328 are flowering plants (angiosperms); this represents a 26% increase in known indigenous angiosperms since the last floristic overview. Intended as a reference for scientists documenting the diversity and distribution of the Guinea flora, the CVPRG will also inform those seeking to safeguard the rich plant diversity of Guinea and the societal, ecological and economic benefits accruing from these biological resources.

Discovering Karima (Euphorbiaceae), a New Crotonoid Genus from West Tropical Africa Long Hidden within Croton.

Croton scarciesii (Euphorbiaceae-Crotonoideae), a rheophytic shrub from West Africa, is shown to have been misplaced in Croton for 120 years, having none of the diagnostic characters of that genus, but rather a set of characters present in no known genus of the family. Pollen analysis shows that the new genus Karima belongs to the inaperturate crotonoid group. Analysis of a concatenated molecular dataset combining trnL-F and rbcL sequences positioned Karima as sister to Neoholstia from south eastern tropical Africa in a well-supported clade comprised of genera of subtribes Grosserineae and Neoboutonieae of the inaperturate crotonoid genera. Several morphological characters support the relationship of Karima with Neoholstia, yet separation is merited by numerous characters usually associated with generic rank in Euphorbiaceae. Quantitative ecological data and a conservation assessment supplement illustrations and descriptions of the taxon.