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The chloroplast trnL-F region was used as an independent data set for phylogenetic analysis of 118 aroid taxa. We investigated the intergeneric relationships of subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae) and used this as a basis for an interspecific phylogenetic study of Rhaphidophora Hassk., the largest genus of the Monsteroideae. Results of the molecular tree were useful for inferring subfamilial and tribal circumscription and evolution in Araceae. Our results show that family Araceae consists of five clades that correspond to the subfamilies traditionally recognized. Starting from the most basal clade, these correspond to subfamilies Gymnostachydoideae and Orontioideae (proto aroids), with Lemna sp. (Lemnaceae) embedded in the Araceae and sister to the true aroids consisting of Pothoideae sister to Monsteroideae, immediately sister to Lasioideae and Aroideae. There is less agreement with existing tribal classifications. Complex relationships exist between members of the Monsteroideae. Our results show that Rhaphidophora and Epipremnum are paraphyletic with species of Rhaphidophora sampled, forming three informal groups with other genera of the Monstereae. Phylogenetic results may be used to suggest taxonomic changes to the current systematics of the monsteroids. Key words: Araceae; classification; intergeneric; Monstereae; Monsteroideae; phylogeny; trnL-F region.

Homalomena hottae is described and illustrated as a new species of microscopically scintillating-velutinous leaved aroid from the Karst limestone of Mulu National Park, to where it is locally restricted. Homalomena hottae is compared with the two currently described Bornean species with similarly scintillating foliage. Notes on the pollination biology of Homalomena hottae are given, and the three described Bornean species of scintillating Chamaecladon clade species are compared in a key. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schismatoglottis guabatuensis is described and illustrated as a new species of the Calyptrata clade restricted to the limestone of Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia. It is compared with the three other described species of the Calyptrata clade present in Peninsula Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homalomena portae‐inferni is described and illustrated as a new species of the Chamaecladon Clade with scintillating‐velutinous foliage restricted to lowland kerangas, and compared with the three morphologically most similar species on Borneo, and with the single other Chamaecladon species described from the Tawau Hills National Park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homalomena cataractae is described and illustrated as a new species of Steenisian rheophyte belonging to the Homalomena punctulata‐clade from the Tau range, Central Sarawak. A key to the species of the Homalomena punctulata‐clade is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homalomena kionsomensis Kartini, P.C. Boyce & S.Y.Wong is described and illustrated as a new species of the Chamaecladon clade, and compared with the one other species of the clade so far described from Sabah. Recognition of H. kionsomensis takes the Homalomena flora of Sabah to seven species, five of them described within the last decade. A key to described species is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schismatoglottis clivemarshii and Schismatoglottis priapica are described and illustrated as new species from the Danum Valley Conservation Area, Tawau, Lahad Datu, Sabah, to where both are endemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pothos pugnax is described and illustrated as a new species [Allopothos supergroup: Pothos barberianus group] from ridgetop kerangas in Kuching Division, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Comparison is made with Pothos atropurpurascens the only closely similar species occurring on Borneo, and also between the confoundable shingling stages of P. pugnax and the parapatric but distantly related Pothos beccarianus [Goniurus supergroup]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shorea peltata (Dipterocarpaceae), categorized according to IUCN classification as Critically Endangered, is reported for the first time from Sarawak, NW Malaysian Borneo. New data on its distribution, locations' geological characteristics, and the first published description of shoot innovations are presented. Plants from ultrabasics in NE Sabah were excluded from S. peltata as an undescribed taxon for which better material is required to enable formal description. Although conservation status of Peninsular Malaysian populations of S. peltata is Critically Endangered, on Borneo S. peltata is considered Endangered, and its Sumateran populations require conservation reassessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bucephalandra danumensis is described from the Danum Valley Conservation Area, Tawau, Lahad Datu, Sabah, where it is restricted to streams and waterfalls on igneous outcrops in forests on Cretaceous deepwater sediments, and compared with the only other Sabahan Bucephalandra species, and with all species with echinate/papillate spadix appendix staminodes. Recognition of B. danumensis takes Bucephalandra to 31 described species, of which just two, both endemic, are known from Sabah. Both Bucephalandra species from Sabah are illustrated from living plants, and a comparative plate of the spadix of all species with echinate/papillate appendix staminodes is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schismatoglottis saafiei Kartini, P. C. Boyce & S. Y. Wong and Schismatoglottis zainuddinii Kartini, P. C. Boyce & S. Y. Wong are described and illustrated as new species from Tawau Hills N.P., Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Schismatoglottis zainuddinii is the first record of the Schismatoglottis Asperata clade for Sabah. Schismatoglottis saafiei belongs to a complex of species centred on S. trifasciata Hallier.f. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homalomena lambirensis S. Y. Wong & P. C. Boyce is described and illustrated as a new species of the Homalomena Hanneae complex [Cyrtocladon clade] from Lambir Hills National Park, northeast Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo to where it is endemic. Comparison with the described Bornean species of the Hanneae complex is made and an identification key to species is provided. Homalomena lambirensis has previously been the subject of detailed pollination biology studies under the erroneous identity Homalomena propinqua Schott (= H. rostrata Griff.). Recognition of H. lambirensis takes to 10 the total of described species for the Hanneae complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alocasia farisii Zulhazman, Norzielawati & P. C. Boyce is described and illustrated from Karst limestone in Kelantan as the first recorded Peninsular Malaysian species of the hitherto wholly Bornean Alocasia princeps complex, within which A. farisii most closely resembles the southwest Sarawak limestone-obligated Alocasia reversa N. E. Br. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pothos vietnamensis V. D. Nguyen & P. C. Boyce is described and illustrated from northern Vietnam as a new species of the Pothos supergroup, and it is compared with the two most similar species: P. kerrii and P. pilulifer to which P. vietnamensis is comparable by having a very small fertile portion (< 5 mm diameter) on the spadix. Ecology, habitat, population size and conservation status are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhaphidophora sonlaensis V.D. Nguyen & P.C. Boyce, a new species of Araceae, is described and illustrated from the material collected in Muong La District, Son La Province, Vietnam, and compared with the two species it most closely resembles, R. laichauensis and R. crassicaulis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A summary of the Schismatoglottis Multiflora Group of Hay & Yuzammi is presented and the group shown to comprise about 15 species, including that described here. Schismatoglottis iliata P. C. Boyce & S. Y. Wong is described as a taxonomic novelty from forested sandstone riverside bluffs of the Ulu Batang Kayan, Lundu District, Kuching Division, NW Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, and compared with the morphologically most similar species, S. mayoana Bogner & M. Hotta and S. nicolsonii A. Hay, with which S. iliata shares leaf blades adaxially matt olive green and abaxially with very fine and dense (c. 2 veins per mm) pellucid secondary venation, and stamen thecae each with two pores. A key to this newly recognized S. mayoana Complex is provided, and all described species for the S. mayoana Complex are illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]