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Numerous plant species worldwide including Palicourea marcgravii and Tanaecium bilabiatum in Brazil cause sudden death and are known to contain monofluoroacetate (MFA). Other species in Brazil including some species traditionally assigned to Mascagnia but now properly called Amorimia species and other Palicourea species are reported to cause sudden death in livestock and are suspected to contain MFA due to the similarity of clinical signs. In this study, an HPLC-APCI-MS method to detect and quantify MFA was developed and was used to investigate plant material from field collections and/or herbarium specimens of Mascagnia, Amorimia, and Palicourea species suspected of causing sudden death. MFA was detected in Amorimia amazonica, Amorimia camporum, Amorimia exotropica, Amorimia pubiflora, Amorimia rigida, and Amorimia septentrionalis as well as Palicourea aeneofusca. MFA concentrations differ greatly between Palicourea species and Amorimia species, which may explain the incidence of poisoning and the amount of plant material required to cause sudden death between these taxa., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Seven new species of neotropical Malpighiaceae are described: Aspicarpa steinmannii, Bunchosia breedlovei, and Bunchosia cruciana from Mexico; Bunchosia soejartoi, Lophanthera marcelae, and Mascagnia corymbosa from Colombia; and Heteropterys tiinae from Peru. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The approximately 42 lineages of Malpighiaceae currently known in Mexico are identified and briefly described and discussed. All the Mexican lineages have their ultimate roots in South America, although in some cases the connections are inferred only through phylogeny and several Mexican genera probably originated in Mexico. All the lineages have effective adaptations for dispersal except the genus Galphimia, but distributions outside Mexico and a phylogenetic tree suggest that while many Malpighiaceae reached Mexico through "stepping-stone" dispersal, some lineages probably arrived as the result of episodes of long-distance dispersal from South America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Premise of the study: The Malpighiaceae include ~1300 tropical flowering plant species in which generic definitions and intergeneric relationships have long been problematic. The goals of our study were to resolve relationships among the 11 generic segregates from the New World genus Mascagnia, test the monophyly of the largest remaining Malpighiaceae genera, and clarify the placement of Old World Malpighiaceae. • Methods: We combined DNA sequence data for tour genes (plastid ndhF, matK, and rbcL and nuclear PHYC) from 338 ingroup accessions that represented all 77 currently recognized genera with morphological data from 144 ingroup species to produce a complete generic phylogeny of the family. • Key results and conclusions: The genera are distributed among 14 mostly well-supported clades. The interrelationships of these major subclades have strong support, except for the clade comprising the wing-fruited genera (i.e., the malpighioid+Amorimia, Ectopopterys, hiraeoid, stigmaphylloid, and tetrapteroid clades). These results resolve numerous systematic problems, while others have emerged and constitute opportunities for future study. Malpighiaceae migrated from the New to Old World nine times, with two of those migrants being very recent arrivals from the New World. The seven other Old World clades dispersed much earlier, likely during the Tertiary. Comparison of floral morphology in Old World Malpighiaceae with their closest New World relatives suggests that morphological stasis in the New World likely results from selection by neotropical oil-bee pollinators and that the morphological diversity found in Old World flowers has evolved following their release from selection by those bees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Callaeum johnsonii (Malpighiaceae), from the state of Puebla, Mexico, is described as new and illustrated. It is similar to C. clavipetalum D. M. Johnson of Oaxaca, differing in characters of the stipules, leaves, bracts, and bracteoles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]