The systematic studies of the Ophiopogoneae in Asparagaceae were reviewed in respect of morphology, anatomy, micromorphology, cytology, molecular phylogenetics, biogeography, genome size, and exploiting and utilizing of plant resource, to provide reference for further studies on Ophiopongoneae.

 The seed morphology of 47 species in Begonia in China and Vietnam were examined under Light Microscope (LM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), respectively. Seed varied from ellipsoidal to obovoid, sometimes broadly obovoid shape with large variation in size. The shape of operculum could be classified into three types: shortclaviform, broadly nippleshaped and obtuse. There are four types of epidermal ornamentations: straight striae, undulated striae, rounded punctum and herringboneshaped punctum. The principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis revealed that the classification of Begonia based on the seed micromorphology was incompletely consistent with the traditional classification on the section level based on the placenta; the ornamentation of seeds showed stability in different populations of a species; the operculum shape shows a considerable difference among morphologically similar species. Seed morphological characters may relate to the dispersal patterns which showed an adaptation to the living environment.

Two monotypic genera, Arthrocormus Dozy & Molk. and Noguchiodendron TN. Ninh & Pócs are reported as new distributional records for China. Arthrocormus schimperi is widely distributed in tropical Asia and Oceania, while Nsphaerocarpum is previously reported from Bhutan, India, Nepal and Thailand. Arthrocormus schimperi looks like some Leucobryaceae species and Nsphaerocarpum resembles Homaliodendron spp. We speculate these are the main reasons why they have been overlooked by collectors. The extremely brittle tips with a cylindrical appearance in the upper portion of leaves make Arthrocormus very distinguishable in the field, while the strongly curled branch in dry condition is the most diagnostic feature of Noguchiodendron. Illustrations for both taxa reported are provided for reference purposes.

‘Xueshandanggui’ is a traditional medicinal plant of the Naxi minority people of Lijiang prefecture, northwestern Yunnan. However, this Chinese name has often been confused with other Apiaceae species. In this study, the descriptions of ‘Xueshandanggui’ are clarified and the taxonomic confusion of related species is discussed. The results showed that the traditional Naxi medicinal plant ‘Xueshandanggui’ was Pleurospermum aromaticum WW. Sm., but the plant described as ‘Xueshandanggui’ in Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae is actually Angelica forrestii Diels. The latter was not the plant that the Naxi refer to as ‘Xueshandanggui’. Other related studies have shown that Aforrestii was a mistreatment, and this has now been combined with Pleurospermum angelicoides (Wall.) Benth. ex CB. Clarke.

Based on detailed study of available specimens and perusal of literature, it is shown that Melanoseris lessertiana or Mulgedium lessertianum is not present in China and corresponding reports in the floristic literature of China actually refer to a species originally described as Mulgedium qinghaicum, and correctly placed as Melanoseris qinghaica, a species here reported for the first time also for Bhutan. Mqinghaica can be clearly distinguished from Mlessertiana by achene shape and anther tube length. The rare and little known Yunnan endemic, originally described as Lactuca monocephala and tentatively considered as conspecific with Mlessertiana recently, is confirmed as an independent species related to the Matropurpurea complex. Of two recently described species from N Pakistan and Kashmir morphologically allied to Mlessertiana, Cicerbita alii is confirmed as a separate species and transferred to Melanoseris, while Castorensis is considered as conspecifc with Mlessertiana.

The chromosome numbers, karyotypes and Cvalues of 18 populations of Plantago depressa and 2 populations of Plantago major from the QinghaiTibet Plateau, China, were reported in the present study. The results were as follows: the chromosome numbers of P. depressa populations from Yadong County and Nyingchi County of Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) were 2n=4x=24, other populations of Pdepressa and Pmajor were 2n=2x=12, and the basic chromosome number of all populations was x=6. All karyotype types were 1A, and the karyotype constitutions were not completely consistent with previous reported results. The 2Cvalue of Pdepressa was reported for the first time, and the 1Cxvaule tended to decrease with increasing ploidy levels. Meanwhile, the 2Cvalue of Pmajor was not identical with previous existing results. The results showed that the variation of 2Cvalue occurred at the interpopulation level of Pdepressa and Pmajor, also flow cytometry couldn′t be used to estimate the ploidy of the genus Plantago Linn.

Ligularia × maoniushanensis (Asteraceae) is a natural hybrid species of Lduciformis and Lparadoxa. In order to study hybridization and genetic structure of taxa in the hybrid zones between Lduciformis and Lparadoxa, crossspecies SSR primers were screened using 94 individuals of two hybrid zones’ hybrids and its parents from 145 nuclear SSR primers which had been developed from Ligularia, Farfugium, Senecio and Helianthus. The results indicated that 54 loci were successfully amplified at least one taxon of three taxa. A total of 17 loci were successfully amplified at three taxa, of which 11 were polymorphic in L. × maoniushanensis, and the number of alleles (NA) ranged from 2 to 14 (average 48) and the ranges of observed (HO) and expected (HE) heterozygosities were 0053~1000 and 0051~0887, respectively. Of which 9 were polymorphic in Lduciformis, and the number of alleles (NA) ranged from 3 to 12 (average 74) and the ranges of observed (HO) and expected (HE) heterozygosities were 0200~0971 and 0283~0844, respectively. Of which 10 were polymorphic in Lparadoxa, the number of alleles (NA) ranged from 4 to 15 (average 7.6) and the ranges of observed (HO) and expected (HE) heterozygosities were 0025~0974 and 0097~0846, respectively. The results will facilitate the further analysis of genetic structure and hybrid extent about taxa in hybrid zone between Lduciformis and Lparadoxa.

A lichen genus, Placynthiella, new to China is reported from Kanas, and a new record of species to China, Poligotropha is described in detail, The morphological, anatomical and chemical description of this species were given. Photos of the thallus, apothecia, asci and ascospores were also provided.

Two species of Begonia L. (Begoniaceae), viz. Begonia demissa Craib and Begonia subperfoliata Parish ex Kurz are reported as new records in China, and the two species assigned to Begonia sect. Parvibegonia A. DC. and Begonia sect. Diploclinium (Wight) A. DC. respectively. The type locality of Begonia demissa is in Thailand and of Begonia subperfoliata in Myanmar. The distribution of Begonia demissa is now extended to Mengyuan, Mengla County of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and that of Begonia subperfoliata to Liushun Community, Pu’er City, both in Yunnan province, China.

Phosphalipase D (PLD) hydrolyzes phospholipids into phosphatidic acid (PA). PLDα1 and δ are the two most abundant members of the 12member PLD family in Arabidopsis. PLDα1 has been demonstrated having role in the woundinginduced PA signalling. However, whether and how PLDδ is involved in woundinginduced PA formation remained unclear. In the present study, the membrane lipids response to wounding was profiled in Wassilewskija (WS) and PLDδ knockout mutant (PLDδKO) of Arabidopsis. The levels of most lipids, including monogalactosyldiacylglycerol, digalactosyldiacylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol had decreased rapidly within 30min after wounding in the two Arabidopsis genotypes. In contrast, the level of PA increased sharply and significantly 30min after wounding. It continued to increase until peaking at 1h postwounding in WS and 3h postwounding in PLDδKO, and then decreased. The PA levels were similar in the two genotypes in untreated leaves and in leaves 6h after wounding. However, these levels were lower in PLDδKO than in WS from 30min to 3h postwounding. The significant difference of PA level between the two genotypes occurred 30min after wounding, when it was about 20% lower in PLDδKO than in WS. These results show that PLDδ is involved in woundinginduced PA formation in Arabidopsis, but its absence induces PA response later and with less intensity than PLDα1.

Stipa purpurea Griseb, the dominant species of alpine steppe, is widely distributed across the large precipitation gradient on the Tibetan Plateau. It is possible that because of local adaptation, Spurpurea populations from different habitats along this precipitation gradient respond differently to drought, which may affect their responses to climate change. To explore the problem, in the present study, we investigated the physiological and molecular response of Spurpurea seedlings from two different populations (Pulan & Cuoqin) to 14d drought stress and subsequent recovery. The results showed that the relative water content, chlorophyll fluorescence, content of osmoticant proline and malondialdehyde (indicator of oxidative stress), accumulation of reactive oxygen species, antioxidant enzyme activities and the expression of droughtrelated genes all changed under drought treatment and went back to the control levels in the subsequent recovery in plants from Pulan. However, these patterns were quite different in plants from Cuoqin, in which these traits changed by inconsistent degrees and did not return to pretreatment levels after rewatering. The results demonstrated that the plants from Pulan had greater resistance to drought stress compared with those from Cuoqin, which had a larger mortality rate ultimately. Combating the differences of offspring in response to drought and the habitat distribution of parents, we considered that genetic basis has been obtained in response to precipitation difference among Spurpurea populations. The results help to understand the adaptation and evolution of Spurpurea to the special environment and the effect of climate change to this botanical system.

GATA proteins are considered to be broadly involved in yieldassociated biological process, such as photoresponse, chlorophyll biosynthesis, and carbon and nitrogen metabolism. Based on castor bean genome database, a total of 19 GATA genes were identified and classified into 4 subfamilies according to gene structure, protein structure and their phylogenetic relationships. Results exhibited that GATA factors were hydrophilic proteins. Analysis of gene structure and protein structure revealed the conserved structural features of GATA factors between castor bean and Arabidopsis thaliana. The highthroughput RNAseq data were used to define the expressional profiles of GATA genes among tissues. The results showed that most of the castor GATA genes preferentially expressed in leaf and root in contrast to their expression in developing seeds. In particular, the expression of GATA genes responding to darkness treatment in leaves was detected using semiquantitative RTPCR. It was shown that expression of three genes was downregulated under darkness treatment, which suggests a role for GATA genes of castor bean in lightmediated regulation. These results provide important theoretical basis to the functions identification of castor GATA genes and increase castor yields.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a key role in cell signal transduction. They are involved in the regulation of growth, development, responses to abiotic or biotic stimuli and cell death. Recent studies identified respiratory burst oxidase homologues (RBOHs) as the key producers of ROS. The Arabidopsis genome contains 10 Rboh genes, that encode proteins with six transmembrane domains supporting two haem groups, FAD and NADPH hydrophilic domains in the Cterminal region and two calciumbinding domains (EFhand) in the Nterminal region. In the present study, we investigated patterns of transcription systematically in Arabidopsis plants. Comparisons among amino acid sequences of ten Rboh genes revealed high degrees of identity among entire amino acid sequences of three groups, suggesting that some members of Rboh family might have redundant functions. With the except of rbohC, none of the lossoffunction mutants was found to display distinct phenotypes, suggesting that RbohC might have a specific function in plant development.

Study and judgment of tobacco seed maturity, and then chose the optimum harvest time have important significance to some agriculture production problems, such as: high quality germplasm resource conservation, utilization, development and improve seed quality and production. This study research the changes during tobacco seed maturity, including morphological changes (seed color), physiological changes within the seeds (water content, germination) and chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) in seed coat changes; and presented the application of these metric to judge the tobacco seed maturity; further studies in this fields and issues that be occurred are also addressed in the paper.

This study, with the purpose of summarizing the large aggregation of Food Plant Ethnobotany studies to find research history, current status and probable future trend, is based on the following questions: (1) What have been studied on traditional food plants previously? (2) What are studying on traditional food plants at present, and how? (3) What will be studied on traditional food plants in future? To conduct this survey, we searched for papers in Web of Science databases, using combinations of keywords, and the survey was limited to the studies published before June 30th, 2014. CITESPACE software was used to analyze the cited references of these papers. Nine hundreds and fiftyfour papers published from 1991 to 2014 were found. Analyzing these 954 papers and their cited references, we discovered that documentation of traditional food plants uses is the main study field in past and at present. Quantitative methods, dissemination of traditional knowledge, proper management of local plants resources, and nutritional and pharmaceutical components of food plants will be studied more in future. This paper will help to get a clue of Food Plant Ethnobotany.