Main | Family List (MO) | Family List (INBio) | Cutting Edge Draft Treatments | Guidelines | Checklist | Citing | Editors The Cutting Edge Volume XXII, Number 1, January 2015 News and Notes | Leaps and Bounds | Germane Literature | Season's Pick COMMELINACEAE.  While closing the gate upon a recent departure from his weekend digs in Cabuya, at the southern tip of the Península de Nicoya, Manual co-PI Barry Hammel, renowned for his serendipity, chanced to notice a tiny-flowered, grass-like commelinaceous herb that clearly differed from Murdannia nudiflora (L.) Brenan, abundant in his yard.  The interloper was quickly identified as Callisia filiformis (M. Martens & Galeotti) D. R. Hunt, previously known in Costa Rica only from the Cordilleras Central and de Talamanca and the Península de Osa.  A month or so earlier, while traveling in the neighborhood of Las Nubes de Coronado in search of the elusive Stellaria nubigena Standl. (Caryophyllaceae), Barry had happened upon a population of Gibasis pellucida (M. Martens & Galeotti) D. R. Hunt, a Mexican sp. mentioned in Manual Vol. 2 (2003) as occasionally cultivated in Costa Rica.  These plants were growing along a fence-row on a shady, roadside slope, and though clearly introduced, appeared to be well established.  Had we known at the time, we'd have treated this sp. in full in the Manual Commelinaceae account.  By the way, Barry did ultimately rediscover Stellaria nubigena—in the INB herbarium! LAMIACEAE.  During his jaunt to Las Nubes (see under "Commelinaceae," this column), Manual co-PI Barry Hammel collected material of Mentha spicata L. from plants naturalized along a fence-row and in roadside ditches.  This sp. was mentioned in Manual Vol. 6 (2007) as having been reported from cultivation in Costa Rica, "y quizás naturalizándose."  Armed with the knowledge that it does indeed become naturalized, we would now be inclined to accord it formal treatment. TOP