Between 2001 and 2017, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh conducted training and research in Belize built around an annual two-week field course, part of the Edinburgh M.Sc. programme in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants, focused on tropical plant identification, botanical-collecting and tropical fieldwork skills. This long-term collaboration in one country has led to additional benefits, most notably capacity building, acquisition of new country records, completion of M.Sc. thesis projects and publication of the findings in journal articles, and continued cooperation. Detailed summaries are provided for the specimens collected by students during the field course or return visits to Belize for M.Sc. thesis projects. Additionally, 15 species not recorded in the national checklist for Belize are reported. The information in this paper highlights the benefits of collaborations between institutions and countries for periods greater than the typical funding cycles of three to five years.

The species of Gagnepainia K.Schum. and Hemiorchis Kurz are revised throughout their ranges. These genera are shown with evidence from morphological and molecular studies to be distinct, although closely related to each other. Two species of Gagnepainia and three of Hemiorchis are recognised. A key to the genera of Globbeae and keys to the species of Gagnepainia and Hemiorchis are given, all names are typified and descriptions are provided. Conservation assessments of all taxa are proposed.

A striking new species of Begonia, B. joshii, is described from Amazonas Region, Peru. The new species is unusual among the South American members of the genus both in its combination of tuberous habit with peltate leaves and in living in a seasonally dry tropical forest environment. A phylogeny of this and closely related species is presented, and its sectional affiliation and IUCN conservation status are discussed. A key to the peltate Peruvian species of Begonia is provided.

Nine new species in four genera of Neotropical Malpighiaceae are described and illustrated: Banisteriopsis rostrata W.R.Anderson (Brazil: Minas Gerais), Bunchosia andina W.R.Anderson (Colombia: Antioquia, Caldas, Nariño, Putomayo, Quindío, Tolima, Valle; Ecuador: Azuay, Napo, Pichincha, Tungurahua); Bunchosia parrae W.R.Anderson (Peru: Loreto, San Martín, Ucayali), Bunchosia phaeocarpa W.R.Anderson (Ecuador: Napo, Orellana, Pastaza, Sucumbíos; Peru: Loreto), Byrsonima anisophylla W.R.Anderson (Brazil: Bahia), Byrsonima cardenasii W.R.Anderson (Colombia: Antioquia, Nariño, Riseralda, Santander, Valle del Cauca), Byrsonima goiana W.R.Anderson (Brazil: Goiás), Byrsonima nana W.R.Anderson (Colombia: Meta) and Tetrapterys catarinensis W.R.Anderson (Brazil: Santa Catarina).

National vegetation classification (NVC) has been widely applied as a framework for mapping and conserving plant species and community types. However, a limited availability of expertise has prevented NVCs from being developed and used in cryptogam-dominated systems, such as for temperate and boreal epiphyte communities. This study simplified a recent systematically sampled NVC, trialled for epiphyte communities in Scotland, by reducing the original list of 82 community indicators to 34 easily recognisable species (lichens, mosses and liverworts). These were subsequently sampled from woodland sites positioned in Scotland’s temperate rain forest zone. Sites were positioned among localities in less intensively managed landscapes (northwest Scotland) through to peri-urban environments (southern Scotland), grouping sites for each locality based on a contrast in woodland temporal continuity (ancient or recent). The richness and diversity of epiphyte community indicators were compared with easily measured variables reflecting stand heterogeneity or ecological stability, and woodland temporal continuity, with air pollution as a covariable. Richness and diversity were significantly explained by the ecological stability of woodland stands, heterogeneity of the light environment, and nitrogen pollution. This demonstrates a tool that can be deployed by the non-specialist, with appropriate training, to quantify the condition of a woodland stand through consequences for its epiphytes in globally important temperate rain forest. The pattern of richness and diversity was consistent with the co-occurrence of particular indicator species, which represent the range of epiphyte community types supported by a woodland.

A new species, Scaphochlamys longipedunculata (Zingiberaceae), is described and illustrated here. It is similar to Scaphochlamys grandis but differs in having 1- or 2-leaved shoots (versus shoots with 5 or more leaves) and peduncle length c.17 cm (versus peduncle length c.7 cm).