Main | Family List (MO) | Family List (INBio) | Cutting Edge Draft Treatments | Guidelines | Checklist | Citing | Editors The Cutting Edge Volume IX, Number 3, July 2002 News and Notes | Recent Treatments | Leaps and Bounds | Germane Literature | Season's Pick ASTERACEAE. Recent herbarium work in St. Louis by INBio's Alexander ('Popeye') Rodríguez, in collaboration with MO Asteraceae pundit John Pruski, has yielded the following windfall of new country records (12 spp. in all): Bidens chiapensis Brandegee (Cerro Chirripó) and B. oerstediana (Benth.) Sherff (Parque Nacional Santa Rosa), the former disjunct from Mexico and Guatemala, the latter a former Nicaraguan endemic; Cosmos crithmifolius Kunth, reported from Mexico to Panama, but not Costa Rica, until Chico Morales found it at ca. 700 m in the valley of the Río Grande de Candelaria; Crassocephalum crepidioides (Benth.) S. Moore, an African native that seems recently arrived in the New World, including several disparate Costa Rican stations; Diplostephium floribundum (Benth.) Wedd., otherwise known only from Colombia and Ecuador, long confused in Costa Rica with D. costaricense S. F. Blake; Fleischmannia imitans (B. L. Rob.) R. M. King & H. Rob. (Cordillera de Tilarán), F. misera (B. L. Rob.) R. M. King & H. Rob. (central Pacific region) and F. chiriquensis R. M. King & H. Rob. (Volcán Irazú), previously known from Mexico to Nicaragua, Panama and Colombia, and western Panama (respectively); Gamochaeta standleyi (Steyerm.) G. L. Nesom, now a former Guatemalan endemic, collected by Alex himself on Cerro Chirripó; Mikania simpsonii W. C. Holmes & McDaniel, widespread below 500 m in the humid lowlands of both slopes in Costa Rica, but not otherwise reported from north of Colombia; Onoseris silvatica Greenm., described from and apparently endemic to Costa Rica (Pacific slope), but long neglected and assumed to be synonymous with O. onoseroides (Kunth) B. L. Rob. (which also occurs in Costa Rica); and Otopappus curviflorus (R. Br.) Hemsl., a widespread Mesoamerican sp. recently deleted from the Costa Rican flora because the lone voucher was found to be a misidentified specimen of O. verbesinoides Benth., but now reinstated by virtue of Alex's own collection from the Caño Negro region, near the Nicaraguan border. It is worth noting that Crassocephalum is also a new generic record for Costa Rica. CARYOCARACEAE. INBio botanist José González has made the northernmost collection to date of Anthodiscus chocoensis Prance, from 300–450 m elevation near San Marcos de Tarrazú. Long known only from the Golfo Dulce region, this sp. had recently turned up in the Río Savegre basin [see The Cutting Edge 8(2): 5, Apr. 2001]. CHLORANTHACEAE. A recent collection from Isla del Coco by one Jennifer Trusty answers to the description of Hedyosmum racemosum (Ruiz & Pav.) Don, widespread in South America but not previously reported from north of Colombia. Our thanks to Jorge Gómez-Laurito (USJ) for this report, and the identification. CYPERACEAE. According to family specialist and Manual treatment author Jorge Gómez-Laurito (USJ), a collection made by Joaquín Sánchez (CR) at 1600 m elevation on the slopes of Cerro Caraigres represents Rhynchospora pungens Liebm. Though widespread from Mexico to Argentina, this sp. has not been reported from Costa Rica nor, apparently, from anywhere in Central America. A member of the sp. complex centered on Rhynchospora rugosa (Vahl) Gale, R. pungens was treated as a synonym of the latter name by W. Wayt Thomas (NY) in Flora mesoamericana (6: 416. 1994). Jorge considers it distinct, in accordance with a prior revision of the group (see Darwiniana 22: 255–311. 1979). GESNERIACEAE. A collection made by Víctor Hugo Ramírez near the notorious Tarrazú municipal garbage dump [see The Cutting Edge 3(4): 1–2, Oct. 1996 and 5(4): 1–2, Oct. 1998] has been tentatively determined by specialist Laurence E. Skog (see under "News and Notes") as Paradrymonia ommata L. E. Skog, otherwise known only from the lowlands of Prov. Bocas del Toro, Panama (and only by the type collection, as far as we are able to determine).