A new pollination mechanism is reported of an orchid species, Bulbophyllum penicillium, based on a field observation in Southeast Yunnan of China. This species has a sensitive lip, and there is a distance of 2–3 mm between it and column apex. Once the lip is touched by a landing insect, it will move up and down or swing left and right continuously, just like a moving caterpillar. By suck a lip movement, the pollinator, a very small fruit fly (Drosophila sp.) ca. 1 mm in height, will be pressed toward the column apex where anther and stigma are located, and then cross-pollination takes place. This unique mode of pollination, depending on the movement of lip rather than insect itself, has never been found before in either Orchidaceae or other families of angiosperms.

The comparative pollination biology of a population of Primula beesiana, a population of P. bulleyana and an overlapping population of these two species in the Yulong Shan, Yunnan Province, China, was studied in 2004 and 2005. The results indicated that both P. beesiana and P. bulleyana were typical heterostylous and obligate outcrossing species; the main pollinators of the two species were bees and butterflies. In all three populations’ sites, the main pollinating visitors of the two species showed preference to one of the two species, resulting in pollinators’ ethological isolation of the two species. The pollinators’ ethological isolation contributes to the reproductive isolation of the two species, which supports the hypothesis that P. beesiana and P. bulleyana are two distinct species. The reproductive isolation of the two species (ethological isolation) is probably an important mechanism in maintaining species boundaries in the genus, and has contributed to the species diversification of Primula in the area. In addition, gene exchanges between P. beesiana and P. bulleyana occurred to some extent in the overlapping population, but whether natural hybridization has contributed to species diversification in Primula remains to be seen.

Salvia L. (family Lamiaceae) a large genus of over 1,000 species is widely distributed in tropical and temperate regions of the world. Among them 84 species are native to China. There remain, however, many taxonomic uncertainties at the sub-generic level. Diterpenoids are a class of secondary metabolites with a large variety of structures and they have been used as chemotaxonomic markers at infra and super-generic levels. For the sake of further chemotaxonomic understanding of Salvia, this paper describes an investigation on the distribution of tanshinones, a group of biologically active diterpenes, which are known to be present in some Chinese members of the genus. Using HPLC with DAD detector, tanshinones in various Salvia species were determined and the distribution supported the circumscription of the sect. Drymosphare in the original sense of Bentham. The distribution of tanshinones, therefore, provides a valuable chemotaxonomic tool for determining infra-generic differences within Salvia.

Unresolved controversies concerning classification of the monotypic genus Perilla L. have hindered the complete understanding and subsequent sustainable use of these vital food, oil and medicinal plants to their full potential. We attempted to use scanning electron microscopy to obtain palynological evidence from Perilla plants of 21 samples from seven provinces in China as a potential extra attribute in classification. The findings showed that pollen grains from plants of 11 samples were oblate, while those of the other 10 were suboblate in shape, and there were no any type of prolate pollen grains being observed. Pollen grains of all the samples had diverse exine ornamentations. Based on whether having continuous tecta on the ornamentations, all of the pollen grains derived from the 21 samples were classified into two categories, fourteen of them with irregular reticulates, seven with continuous tecta with no perforations. None of the samples were bireticulates. The ornamentation pattern and size of pollen grains jointly provided evidence that it is appropriate to classify the genus Perilla into five varieties of one species. Furthermore, by comparison, it is concluded that shapes and exine ornamentations of Perilla are unique among those of the seven genera already investigated in the subfamily Lamioideae. Using these pollen features, Perilla could be easily distinguished from two other subtribes (Menthinae Briq. and Thyminae Briq.) in the same tribe, supporting the view that Perilla and other four related genera were divided into one subtribe (Perillinae).

Hedychium menghaiense X. Hu & N. Liu, a new species of the Zingiberaceae from Yunnan Province, China, is described and illustrated. The new species is currently known only from its type locality, Nannuoshan Mountain, Menghai County, growing under evergreen broad-leaved forests at altitudes of 1400–1700 m. It is similar to H. forrestii Diels, but differs in its narrower and emarginate labellum folded inwards lengthwise, narrower staminodes and scarlet stamen. The recognition of the new species is supported by the results from analysis of sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers.