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Othonna cerarioides Magoswana and J.C. Manning is described as a new species from Namaqualand, Northern Cape Province of South Africa. It is an erect shrub with rod‐like stems and branches, bearing numerous spur‐shoots with obovate‐oblanceolate leaves clustered at the tips, and up to nine disciform capitula per spur‐shoot. Othonna cerarioides is anomalous in the genus in that the style of some of the disc florets is bifid. Othonna is diagnosed within subtribe Othonnineae by female‐sterile disc florets with simple (or very rarely minutely bifid) styles. The disc florets in the closely related genus Hertia are bisexual with well branched styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gennari botanist and head-gardener Friedrich Dehnhardt described several new names in Tritonia in poorly known publications covering plants cultivated in the former Hortus Camaldulensis (Naples, southern Italy). The names have been generally neglected or misinterpreted, and originai specimens have not been traced. We have examined grey literature and artistic plates by Dehnhardt himself, and are able to typify and synonymise most of the names. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asphodelaceae subfam. Alooideae (Asparagales) currently comprises five genera, four of which are endemic to southern Africa. Despite their importance in commercial horticulture the evolutionary relationships among the genera are still incompletely understood. This study examines phylogenetic relationships in the subfamily using an expanded molecular sequence dataset from three plastid regions (matK, rbcLa, trnH-psbA) and the first subunit of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS1). Sequence data were analysed using maximum parsimony and Bayesian statistics, and selected morphological traits were mapped onto the molecular phylogeny. Haworthia is confirmed as being polyphyletic, comprising three main clades that largely correlate with current subgeneric circumscriptions. Astroloba and Gasteria are evidently each monophyletic and sister respectively to Astroloba and H. subg. Robustipedunculares. Chortolirion is shown to be deeply nested within Aloe and is formally included in that genus. Aloe itself is clearly polyphyletic, with the dwarf species A. aristata allied to Haworthia subg. Robustipedunculares. The taxonomic implications of these findings are examined but branch support at critical lower nodes is insufficient at this stage to justify implementing major taxonomic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]