Summary The new species Cyathula guineensis (Amaranthaceae), from Faranah and Kankan Regions of northern and central Guinea, is described and illustrated. This new species is assessed as globally Endangered, as it faces a range of threats at its two known locations and is estimated to have a small global population size, with fewer than 250 mature individuals within each of its two known sub-populations. Its taxonomic affiniti...

Summary The new genus Cryptacanthus I.Darbysh. & Kiel (Acanthaceae: Acanthoideae: Justicieae: Justiciinae) is described from the Guineo-Congolian forests of West and Central Africa based on a combination of molecular phylogenetic data and macro- and micro-morphological studies. Previously referred to informally as the “ Rhinacanthus virens Clade”, it comprises three species currently placed in either Justicia L. or Rhinacanthu...

Summary Species new to science discovered from the Banyang Mbo Wildlife Sanctuary (BMWS) of SW Region Cameroon are reviewed and summarised, as are species listed as threatened which have been recorded, both from lowland evergreen forest and cloud (submontane) forest. In total, five globally Critically Endangered, 17 Endangered and 21 Vulnerable plant species are listed for BMWS. We describe an additional, narrow endemic of BMW...

Summary A new range-restricted species of Placodiscus Radlk. is described, mapped and illustrated. Placodiscus bijugus is a cauliflorous tree (4 –) 5 – 10 m tall, characterised by having leaves with two pairs of leaflets, 1 (– 2)-flowered cymules with minute bracts, a glabrous disk, pedicels 3 – 3.2 mm long and large (3 – 4 cm diam.), shortly stipitate, retuse fruits, orbicular in outline. It is similar to P. caudatus Pierre e...

Summary Keetia magassoubiana Cheek, an evergreen rainforest climber, is described and illustrated from the Republic of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast. Previously indicated as being close to, but different from, K. tenuiflora (Hiern) Bridson, it differs in the glossy, black, glabrous, epidermis of the distal stem internodes; the first internode rarely with very sparse, red adpressed hairs (vs epidermis pale white...

Summary A new subgenus, Cola subg. Distichae , is erected for 14 simple-leaved species sharing unique characters within the genus which are presumed synapomorphies: distichous phyllotaxy; petioles lacking pulvini; petioles of uniformly short length, <10 mm long; male flowers with short androphores <1 (– 2) mm long; stamens 4 – 5; stem indumentum, where present, dominated by short simple translucent hairs (except in C. philipi-...

Summary We emphasise the urgent need to conserve the Ebo forest (Littoral Region, Cameroon), which holds 10 strict endemic plant species and 15 near endemics for a total of 25, a very high number far exceeding the threshold for its recent status as an Important Plant Area (IPA). We describe a further strict endemic species from the Ebo Forest, Memecylon ebo sp. nov. (Melastomataceae-Olisbeoideae), placed in sect. Afzeliana due...

Summary Keetia gordonii sp. nov. (Rubiaceae - Vanguerieae) a new species of forest liana from Gabon, is described and illustrated. The new species shows all the diagnostic characters of Keetia , such as pyrenes opening by an apical cap and seeds with tanniniferous endosperm, both of which are unrecorded in other genera of the tribe, flowers with a long-exserted style and erect anthers and a (usually) climbing habit. However, i...

Summary The fully mycotrophic (or mycoheterophic) Afrothismia ugandensis Cheek nom. nov. (Afrothismiaceae), formerly described as A. winkleri (Engl.) Schltr. var . budongensis Cowley from the Budongo Forest in Western Uganda, is renamed, redescribed and illustrated. This change in status is supported by eight newly elucidated, qualitative, morphological, diagnostic characters despite the overall similarity with A. winkleri, a...

Summary We describe and illustrate Lychnodiscus bali Cheek (Sapindaceae), a new species to science, from the Bali Ngemba Forest Reserve of NW Region Cameroon, the last major remnant of cloud forest in the Bamenda Highlands of Cameroon, recently evidenced as a Tropical Important Plant Area (TIPA or IPA). Confined on current evidence to upper submontane forest, the new species is threatened by expanding habitat clearance for far...

Summary A new species of Apocynaceae from Atlantic Central Africa, Voacanga madureirae Paiva, O.Lachenaud & Covelo, is mapped, described and illustrated. It occurs on the Gulf of Guinea islands of Príncipe (São Tomé and Príncipe) and Bioko (Equatorial Guinea) and in the highlands of western Cameroon. The new species differs from other African Voacanga by its calyx distinctly exceeding the corolla (vs shorter or at most equalli...

Summary We show that the two continental African species previously ascribed to the genus Anacolosa , differ in so many architectural, floral and vegetative characters from the remaining species of the genus (which occur from Madagascar to the western Pacific, including the type) that they clearly represent a separate genus. The African genus represented by these two species is unique within the Olacaceae s.l. (excluding Eryth...

Summary Afrothismia is a genus of non-photosynthetic mycoheterotrophs from the forests of continental tropical Africa. Multiple phylogenetic inferences using molecular data recover the genus as sister to a clade comprising mycoheterotrophic Thismiaceae and the photosynthetic family Taccaceae, contrary to earlier placements of Afrothismia and Thismiaceae within Burmanniaceae. Morphological support for separating Afrothismia fro...

Summary Descriptions and illustrations are presented for three new species to science, Vepris udzungwa Cheek , V. lukei Cheek (both Udzungwa Mts, Tanzania), and V. robertsoniae Q.Luke & Cheek (SE Kenyan kaya forests), in the context of a synoptic taxonomic revision and with an identification key to all the known unifoliolate taxa of Vepris in continental Africa. The new species are described and illustrated, while the remainin...

Summary Monanth otaxis bali is the only known, solely montane (occurring solely above 2000 m alt.) species of the genus. It joins M. orophila (Rwanda) and M. discolor (Tanzania), two other species that can also occur above 2000 m alt. Monanthotaxis bali is an addition to the small number (28) of the tree species of the surviving montane forests of the Cameroon Highlands of which only eight other species are endemic. Due to its...

Summary We describe Microcos rumpi (Grewiaceae) a massive new species to science from the Rumpi Hills of SW Region Cameroon, a proposed Tropical Important Plant Area. Confined on current evidence to submontane forest, the species is threatened by expanding habitat clearance for farms and is assessed as Critically Endangered. A large tree, attaining 35 – 40 m height, and 80 cm trunk diam. at 1.3 m above ground, its biomass is c...

Summary We describe two range-restricted new species to science from the genus Impatiens (Balsaminaceae), both threatened, from lowland of the Cross-Sanaga Interval of western Cameroon. The first, Impatiens banen, appears to be restricted to an open seepage microhabitat on granitic inselbergs in the lowland-submontane forest zone of the Ebo Forest in Littoral Region and is provisionally assessed using the 2012 IUCN standard as...

Summary Two tree species are described as new to science: Rinorea spongiocarpa Achound. sp. nov. (placed in Rinorea [unranked] Brachypetalae) and R. dimakoensis Achound. sp. nov. (placed in Rinorea [unranked] Ilicifolieae). Both species occur in Cameroon, south of the Sanaga river, the first from South and East Regions, occurring in evergreen forest from Ngovayang and Lolodorf across the southern plateau to the Dja forest. The...

Summary A new genus, Lukea Cheek & Gosline (Annonaceae) , is erected for two new species to science, Lukea quentinii Cheek & Gosline from Kaya Ribe, SE Kenya, and Lukea triciae Cheek & Gosline from the Udzungwa Mts, Tanzania. Lukea is characterised by a flattened circular bowl-shaped receptacle-calyx with a corolla of three free petals that give the buds and flowers a unique appearance in African Annonaceae. Both species are e...

Summary Species of the genus Saxicolella Engl. (Podostemaceae) are African rheophytes, restricted to rapids and waterfalls as are all members of the family. Previously, Saxicolella sensu lato was shown to be polyphyletic with two separate clades. The name Pohliella Engl. was recently resurrected for one clade that is sister to the American genera Ceratolacis (Tul.) Wedd., Podostemum Michx. and all Old World Podostemoideae. Poh...

Summary We revise and update the records of strict and near-endemic species of the Bali Ngemba Forest Reserve, the largest known surviving patch (c. 8 km 2 in area) of submontane or cloud forest in the Bamenda Highlands, Cameroon which have lost >96 % of their original forest due to human activities. Nine strict endemics, and 11 near endemics are now documented, a drop from the number recorded after the first survey in 2004, s...

Summary We revise and update the records of strict and near-endemic species of Mt Kupe, Cameroon respectively from 31 strict endemics in 2004, to 25 today, and with near-endemic species 30, unchanged in number but with turnover. The changes result from new collections, discoveries and taxonomic changes in the last 16 years. While 15 of the provisionally named putative endemic species have now been formally published, a further...