Curcumin is mainly found in Curcuma longa L. (Zingiberaceae) and is an important constituent of spices and medicines. Previous investigations of C. longa indicated that the amount of curcumin was different among various strains of this species. It is difficult to identify strains with a high content of curcumin within C. longa, so molecular identification may provide useful. To conduct an accurate and easy identification of the high content strain of curcumin, we evaluated chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) sequences of various individuals of C. longa by the method of PCR amplification. The result indicates that the only strains with a high content of curcumin have total of 20-bp insertion or deletion (indel) in the atpF intron of cpDNA and have a one site digesting on the indel by the restriction enzyme of ScaI. From these results, the PCR amplification of the atpF intron and the PCR-RFLP using the ScaI for C. longa allows the accurate identification of the strains with high curcumin content.

For two Korean woody taxa described by H. Uyeki (1924) lectotype of Corylopsis coreana Uyeki (Hamamelidaceae) and neotype of Carpinus laxiflora (Siebold & Zucc.) Blume var. longispica Uyeki (Betulaceae) are designated here.

Two new species of Croomia (Stemonaceae), C. saitoana Kadota and C. hyugaensis Kadota & Mas. Saito, are here described from Miyazaki Pref., Kyushu, southern Japan. Croomia saitoana differs from C. japonica Miq. [= C. kiusiana Makino] in having small, solitary, dark purplish brown flowers, thicker and shorter staminal filaments, thicker purplish stem, the absence of bracts and (6–)7–11 cauline leaves with 3–5 veins. Croomia hyugaensis is distinguished from C. japonica by having solitary flower, entire leaf margin, 4–6, slightly fleshy, cordate cauline leaves with cordate base; from C. saitoana by larger flowers, longer staminal filaments, slender green stem, prominent, linear to spathulate bracts and 4–6, slightly fleshy, cordate cauline leaves with 5–7 veins and entire margins. Croomia hyugaensis and C. saitoana are known exclusively from Miyazaki Pref., Kyushu, and are the forth and the fifth species in the genus Croomia, respectively. A key to the species of the genus Croomia is also provided.

Recent collections of Rhodiola (Crassulaceae) were examined taxonomically. The collections from Qinghai Province, China are listed according to Ohba´s infrageneric system. Notable specimens collected in various other parts of SW China are also reported.

Carex ×musashiensis Ohwi is newly reported from Miyoshi-shi, Tokushima Pref., Shikoku. This plant was described from Mt. Takao, Tokyo, as a hybrid between C. curvicollis Franch. & Sav. and C. thunbergii Steud. However, this plant is reinterpreted as a hybrid between C. curvicollis and C. forficula Franch. & Sav. by the ecological and morphological evidence at the new locality. The lectotype of C. ×musashiensis is deginated here.

In the course of floristic research of Myanmar, we found Eleiotis sororia (L.) DC. as new to the flora. This is the easternmost end of distribution of this species. The nomenclatural confusion of this species is reviewed and the lectotype is designated here. Detailed illustrations of flower, fruit and seed are presented as well as their descriptions. Conspicuous indumentum in the inflorescence and anatomical features of the fruit with respect to the joint structure are described in detail.

Nine species of seven genera in the family Graphidaceae are recognized as Cambodian member of the lichens and their distribution ranges are presented. Among them, one species, Graphis cambodiensis M. Nakan., Kashiw. & K. H. Moon, is new to science. It is distinct from allied species of the genus in having prominent lirellae covered by thallus nearly up to the exciples, muriform spores 75–105 × 20–30 μm in size and in producing norstictic acid. Graphis commaculans Vain. is reduced to a synonym of Sarcographa gyrizans (Leight.) Mu?ｽNll. Arg. The following seven species, Carbacanthographis induta (Mu?ｽNll. Arg.) Lu?ｽNcking, Fissurina dumastii Fée, Graphis glaucescens Fée, G. supracola A. W. Archer, Gymnographa heterospora (Nyl.) Staiger, Hemithecium aphanes (Mont. & v. d. Bosch) M. Nakan. & Kashiw. and Sarcographa gyrizans (Leight.) Mu?ｽNll. Arg. are new to the lichen flora of Cambodia.

Lespedeza bicolor Turcz. var. intermedia Maxim. f. albiflora Matsum. was published without citation of the type and specimens. Identity of the name was traced by examination of the original description and herbarium specimens of its related taxa. So far the name had been applied to a whiteflowered form of L. japonica L. H. Bailey, L. penduliflora (Oudem.) Nakai or L. thunbergii (DC.) Nakai, but these species show discrepancy in the calyx, stanard and pods with the original description of the form. We considered that f. albiflora Matsum. was correctly referred by Matsumura to a whiteflowered form of L. bicolor. Neotype of L. bicolor f. albiflora Matsum. is designated in this paper. Lespedeza bicolor var. alba Bean is regarded as a synonym of L. bicolor f. albiflora Matsum.

Chloranthus japonicus Siebold (Chloranthaceae) with green foliate projections instead of white filamentous stamens was found in Miura Peninsula, Kanagawa Pref., central Japan. These foliate projections, foliose stamens, had three lobes, which were narrowly ellipse in shape, 4–5 mm long and 1–2 mm wide. They looked like trilobate bracts enclosing gynoecia. About three months after anthesis, these stamens fell off from the inflorescence axis with sterile gynoecia. The foliose stamen is considered to be an example of phyllody.

A new, double-flowered form of Amana edulis (Miq.) Honda (Liliaceae), f. duplexa Yashiro, Ichirara & Iwase, is described from Chiba Pref., Central Japan. This new form was found to have significantly high pollen fertility