Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas

Reviewers for JBRIT Volume 19 (2025)

Barney Lipscomb — 2025-12-16

Seventy-eight (78) individuals reviewed manuscript submissions for JBRIT Volume 19 (2025). Thank you for supporting Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

First record of Euonymus maackii (Celastraceae) from the Arkansas (U.S.A.) flora

Brett E. Serviss — 2025-12-16

The first naturalized occurrence of Euonymus maackii (Celastraceae) in the Arkansas flora is reported here from Garland County. In 2025, a small, naturalized population of 9–10 plants of E. maackii was discovered in highly disturbed roadside habitat along a small drainage and adjacent to a residential area, within the city of Hot Springs. Larger individuals were fertile, with well-developed but immature fruits. Smaller, sterile individuals are presumed established from seeds produced from the larger, reproductive-age plants. The precise origin of the naturalized plants is unknown, although initial escape and establishment from cultivated plants of the species is probable.

Cypripedium candidum (Orchidaceae) discovered in Arkansas, U.S.A.

Ben E. Benton — 2025-12-16

We report the first documentation of Cypripedium candidum Muhl. ex Willd. from Arkansas, USA, and provide details of the discovery, occurrence, and habitat.

East Indian holly fern, Arachniodes simplicior (Dryopteridaceae), found Georgia, U.S.A.

Robert W. Pemberton — 2025-12-16

East Indian holly fern, an escaped ornamental native to Asia, is reported for the second time in Georgia, one of only four states from which it has been collected. Being native to cold temperate Asia and hardy to USDA zone 6, this fern has the potential to naturalize beyond the southeastern United States.

The naturalization of Phegopteris decursive-pinnata, the Japanese beech fern, in Georgia, U.S.A.

Robert W. Pemberton — 2025-12-16

Phegopteris decursive-pinnata (Phegopteris taiwaniana, Thelypteris decursive-pinnata), the Japanese beech fern, is reported from six nature preserves in the Atlanta/Gainesville region of Georgia, United States. The fern has been previously collected in a single county in Arkansas and two counties in Alabama. Recent Research Grade iNaturalist posts (2021–2025) report the fern in eight states including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee in the South, and in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia in Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. These collections and observations suggest that this commonly cultivated ornamental fern is becoming naturalized in the United States.

Morphological and genetic analyses of herbarium specimens clarify the arrival of non-native common reed (Phragmites australis subsp. australis) in Kansas (U.S.A.)

James B. Beck — 2025-12-16

The common reed, Phragmites australis, is a globally distributed grass species with numerous named subspecific taxa. In North America, a non-native Eurasian subspecies has established and is rapidly expanding its range at the expense of a native subspecies. Our understanding of the common reed invasion in North America is possible because diagnostic data can be obtained from freshly collected and herbarium material, allowing the geography of subspecies to be understood through time. In this study, these morphological and genetic tools were used to diagnose subspecies in a set of specimens from Kansas collected between 1936–2024. Morphological and genetic diagnoses of subspecies agreed in 92% of cases. The non-native subspecies is present in Kansas and arrived in the 1970s or 1980s based on morphological or genetic data, respectively. The last native subspecies specimen was observed in the late 1990s, suggesting that statewide invasion could have been rapid. However, relatively recent specimens are not available for large portions of the state, particularly western Kansas. Additional sampling of both herbarium and freshly collected material is needed to fully understand the historic and current distribution of common reed subspecies in Kansas.

Index for JBRIT Volume 19 (2025)

Barney Lipscomb — 2025-12-16

There is an index to 43 titles with authors, an index of 96 authors, botanical names and subject index, an index to 31 new names and new combinations and 150 typifications.

Annual Review of Phytopathology, Volume 63

Barney Lipscomb — 2025-12-16

The Annual Review of Phytopathology, in publication since 1963, covers significant developments in the field of plant pathology, including plant disease diagnosis, pathogens, host-pathogen interactions, epidemiology and ecology, breeding for resistance and plant disease management, and includes a special section on the development of concepts.

A Conspectus of the North American Isoetaceae

Barney Lipscomb — 2025-12-16

Inscrutable, complex, and important, quillworts (lycophyte genus Isoetes) have bedeviled and fascinated field botanists for over 150 years. An outwardly simple appearance belies the internal intricacies that distinguish individual species. North American species occur in a wide variety of wetland habitats, ranging from tidal flats to subalpine lakes. Over 30% of the continent’s known species are regional endemics and their sensitivity to environmental stresses has resulted in many being of regional or even global conservation concern.

Index to new names and new combinations and typifications in J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 19(4), 2025

Barney Lipscomb — 2025-12-16

Index to New Names and New Combinations and Typifications published in JBRIT 19(4), 16 Dec 2025.

Europe's Alpine Flowers: A Field Guide

Barney Lipscomb — 2025-12-16

Europe’s Alpine Flowers covers the flowering plants and conifers that occur regularly on mountains and in Arctic areas north of a line that runs from the Pyrenees to Southern Romania. For many botanists—and gardeners—the alpine flora is the best it gets. There are many species adapted to a harsh climate of extreme winter cold and strong winds, including some of our most beautiful rock plants, such as gentians, saxifrages, and crocuses. These also include subtle and rare flowers that require care to discover and identify. With outstanding photographs and concise text that covers key features, this guide enables confident identification in the field.

Pansies: How to Grow, Reimagine, and Create Beauty with Pansies and Violas

Barney Lipscomb — 2025-12-16

Brenna Estrada, author, is an accomplished flower farmer who has trialed hundreds of varieties of pansies and violas on her farm, Three Brothers Blooms, developing a huge following of growers and floral designers. Her innovative approach to growing in full sun results in pansies with long stems, breathtaking fragrance, and unique color. With the instincts of a collector, Brenna encourages gardeners and flower enthusiasts to see the pansy as a reliable, elegant, showstopping flower that brings drama, whimsy, and diversity to every garden and arrangement.

The hardy Hibiscus—still hardy, but no longer Hibiscus: Reinstatement of Muenchhusia (Malvaceae: Hibisceae)

Margaret M. Hanes — 2025-12-16

Phylogenetic data have demonstrated that the circumscription of Hibiscus L. as traditionally defined must be modified to establish monophyletic genera in the tribe Hibisceae. In accordance with a recent recommendation to reduce the circumscription of Hibiscus, we here reinstate the genus Muenchhusia Heist. ex Fabr. to accommodate five cold-hardy species from Hibiscus section Muenchhusia (Heist. ex Fabr.) O.J. Blanch. Species of Muenchhusia are restricted to temperate wetlands in North America and have large, showy flowers. Species in this genus have long been cultivated and hybridized for a wide variety of vegetative and floral characteristics, and their hardiness in temperate winters. We make new combinations in Muenchhusia, designate lectotypes or neotypes where required, and provide a key to the genus.

New and noteworthy reports of lichens and allied fungi to Colorado (U.S.A.), including descriptions of two species new to science

Erin A. Manzitto-Tripp — 2025-12-16

Colorado’s southern Rocky Mountains and adjacent High Plains are home to some of the most vast, intact, and minimally disturbed natural ecosystems remaining in the western United States. Colorado moreover ranks among the top 10 states in the USA for percentage of land that is in the public domain, and hence a very long history of land conservation, stewardship, and research and interest in natural history. Despite extensive knowledge gained about the biota of Colorado over the prior century, the lichens of Colorado have never been thoroughly nor comprehensively inventoried beyond the geographically and/or temporally limited efforts by a handful of scholars over the years. Two years ago, we launched a large-scale study of the state’s lichen biota, targeting all ecosystems, elevations, geographical regions, and substrates. Our field collections and subsequent identification efforts have revealed the magnitude of the task ahead: a first full and comprehensive lichen inventory. Here, we describe two new species of Caloplaca s.l. to science, Tassiloa friogranitica and Pyrenodesmia praemonatana, provide IUCN conservation assessments for both, and discuss their morphological and molecular affinities to close allies. Finally, we report on 32 species of lichens and allied fungi newly documented in Colorado for the first time to our knowledge, along with an additional 17 species otherwise known only from one or a few pre-existing collections in the state.

Evolution and taxonomic revision of the “residual highbush” blueberries of Vaccinium sect. Cyanococcus (Ericaceae)

Peter W. Fritsch — 2025-12-16

The taxonomy of naturally occurring Vaccinium corymbosum has varied widely. The original monograph of V. sect. Cyanococcus treated the species narrowly as a tetraploid of the northeastern U.S. and adjacent Canada, whereas the most recent treatment of the section synonymized many species under a single polymorphic species ranging across eastern North America. Data from morphology, phylogenomics, and flow cytometry to assess ploidy have recently been used to resurrect several of the original species from the synonymy of V. corymbosum. This has left remaining a “residual highbush” blueberry group of uncertain species number and delimitation. We assessed the taxonomy of this group in the context of its origin and evolution with the same types of data and analyses used to segregate the prior species. Phylogenomic analysis yielded a monophyletic residual highbush group corroborated by several morphological characters. Neither the diploids nor the tetraploids in the clade formed monophyletic groups, but principal component and genetic structure analyses provided evidence of mostly distinct groups aligned with ploidy. The two ploidal levels have largely nonoverlapping geographic ranges, with the diploids in the southeastern U.S. and tetraploids in the northeastern U.S. and adjacent Canada, overlapping along the Atlantic Coastal Plain and East Gulf Coastal Plain. The nonmonophyly of the tetraploids, together with the prior finding of high frequencies of unreduced gametes in the residual highbush clade, suggest multiple autopolyploid origins. The lack of tetraploids throughout the entire western range of the diploids suggests that polyploid formation is localized or rare and that the two ploidy levels have largely followed separate evolutionary trajectories. We found higher genetic diversity in the tetraploid versus the diploid, suggesting that if gene flow is occurring between ploidal levels, it is not recent. Based on a synthesis of the data, we recognize two species, the diploid V. fuscatum and the tetraploid V. corymbosum, differentiated at least in part morphologically by characters that may be associated with the polyploid gigas effect. We provide a taxonomic revision, including a key, full synonymy, a discussion of character variation, nomenclatural and ecological notes, geographic distribution maps, and lists of representative specimens examined. We place four names variably recognized in recent floristic and horticultural literature in synonymy, i.e., the diploids V. atrococcum and V. caesariense under V. fuscatum, and the tetraploids V. formosum and V. marianum under V. corymbosum. We provide lectotypes for Cyanococcus holophyllus, V. atlanticum, V. caesariense, V. corymbosum, V. corymbosum var. atrocarpum, V. corymbosum var. glabrum, V. formosum, V. fuscatum, V. marianum, and V. vicinum. Vaccinium cuthbertii is placed under the synonym of V. fuscatum but warrants further investigation as to its possible taxonomic distinctness.

Taxonomy of Persea (Lauraceae) in the southeastern USA

Alan R. Franck — 2025-12-16

Three species of Persea are native to the southeastern USA. Alternative classifications have been suggested, or, in some cases, implemented for Persea s.lat., placing these aforementioned three species in a different genus (e.g., Farnesia, Mutisiopersea, or Tamala). This article examines the nomenclature of potential segregate genera and takes a closer look at the names of Rafinesque. Two genera described by Fabricius (Burbonia and Farnesia) are the oldest available segregate genera. Combinations are made in Farnesia for the three species of the southeastern USA formerly in Persea.

Scottmoria cupellastyla and S. stylivulcanica, two new trees of Lecythidaceae from Costa Rica, and S. woodsoniana, a new combination from Panama

Xavier Cornejo — 2025-12-16

Two new species of medium size to canopy trees of Lecythidaceae from Costa Rica are formally presented: Scottmoria cupellastyla, from the Pacific lowlands of the Peninsula de Osa, in the province of Puntarenas; and S. stylivulcanica, from the Caribbean lowlands in the province of Limón. The new combination, Scottmoria woodsoniana (Dwyer) Cornejo, comb. nov., is here provided for a species known from Panama. The new species are described and illustrated and the relationships with related species are discussed.

Deciphering the identity of Dendropanax caucanus (Araliaceae) and a new species from Costa Rica

J. Francisco Morales — 2025-12-16

Based on the long-standing confusion surrounding the name Dendropanax caucanus, a revised description and circumscription are here proposed, included a drawing. The species is excluded from the Flora of Costa Rica and Panama. Dendropanax bacchus, endemic to Costa Rica, is described and illustrated, and is provisionally assessed as Endangered [EN B2b(ii,iii)]. A lectotype is designated for Gilibertia caucana Harms.

Synopsis and typification of New World members of the tribe Chiococceae (Rubiaceae, Dialypetalanthoideae)

Piero G. Delprete — 2025-12-16

The tribe Chiococceae sensu Paudyal et al. (2018) is a monophyletic group of 30 genera and ca. 210 species. The tribe has amphi-Pacific geographical disjunction between the Neotropics and the West Pacific, with ca. 160 species present in the Greater Antilles, which represents its center of diversity, ca. 25 species present in Central and South America, and 28–30 species in the South Pacific (Philippines, New Caledonia, Marianas to Melanesia and Tonga Islands). The tribe has been shown to be monophyletic by numerous molecular phylogenetic studies. Members of the Chiococceae are highly variable in habit, ranging from subshrubs, erect or scandent shrubs, vines, treelets to tall trees. Their flowers are also highly variable in shape and dimensions, with corolla tubes ranging from ca. 3 mm long (e.g., Erithalis) to 27 cm long (e.g., Osa), with stamens inserted near or at the base of corolla tube or on the disc, and with spinulose pollen. Fruits of this tribe are also variable, as they can be capsular, drupaceous, or baccate, and the seeds can be flat, polygonal or globose, included in pyrenes or not. A synopsis of the Neotropical taxa of the tribe is here presented. The generic delimitations adopted in this synopsis follow those of Paudyal et al. (2018). The objective of this synopsis is to present a complete synonymy and typification of all the names involved, and to provide the identity of all the names of Neotropical taxa. A total of 83 lectotypifications, 20 neotypifications, and 1 epitypification, are here presented. The new combinations Coutaportla campanilla (DC.) Delprete, Scolosanthus crucifer ssp. microphyllus (Borhidi) Delprete, Solenandra coriacea (Poir.) Delprete, Solenandra parviflora (Bonpl.) Delprete, and the new species Scolosanthus nipensis Borhidi ex Delprete, are here published. In the Neotropics, 27 genera, 183 species, 8 subspecies, and 2 varieties, are here recognized in the tribe, of which 16 genera, 83 species, 5 subspecies, and 1 variety occur in Cuba.

Nomenclatural notes in Arenaria (Caryophyllaceae) from the Páramos of Ecuador

Emilio J. Trujillo — 2025-12-16

Typifications and nomenclatural corrections based on the ICN (Turland et al. 2025) of six species of Arenaria L. found in Ecuador are provided due to several nomenclatural issues regarding their types and history.