Creeping plants have unique ornamental value because they have more branches and flowers and the creeping trait is rare in crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica L.). In this study, the first filial generation (F₁) population was derived from Lagerstroemia fauriei Koehne (standard) and L. indica “Creole” (creeping) and the backcross1 (BC₁) population was derived from the backcross of F₁ individual S82 (creeping) and L. fauriei. The segregation of the creeping trait was analyzed for 174 seedlings of the BC₁ population to examine the linkage relationship between simple sequence repeat (SSR) molecular markers and the creeping trait. Creeping genes were screened using bulked segregant analysis combined with 322 SSR primers, which were detected with good polymorphism. The results show that two SSR markers (S364 and LYS12) were detected, with genetic distances of 23.49 centimorgan (cM) and 25.86 cM from the loci controlling the plant opening angle trait and the branching angle trait, respectively. The accuracy rate for phenotypic verification using S364 and LYS12 was 76.51% and 74.14%, respectively. Our results provide basic information for the molecular marker-assisted selective breeding and cloning of the creeping gene to improve architecture diversity in the breeding of crape myrtle.

Prunus quanzhouensis is a new species of Rosaceae discovered in Guangxi, China, which is here described and illustrated. Despite its morphological similarities to P. campanulata, P. conradinae and P. xueluoensis, it can be distinguished from them by being shrubs or small trees, with 1.5–3.0 m tall, leaves with 10–13 pairs of lateral veins, abaxially glabrous involucral bracts, adaxially appressed villous bracts, flowers measuring 1–1.2 cm in diameter, tubular hypanthium with about 9×3 mm, oblique sepals, 30–35 stamens, and a style that is villous and longer than the stamens. Less than six populations of this new species have been found in the type locality, with approximately 130 mature individuals, which accounted for more than 95% of the total population. Based on direct observation in the field and the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, P. quanzhouensis is classified as Endangered (EN).

Lagerstroemia loudonii is an ornamental tree with medicinal value. Here, we announce the first complete chloroplast genome sequence of L. loudonii. The L. loudonii chloroplast genome harbors a typical quadripartite structure with a total length of 152,372 bp, including a large single-copy (LSC) region of 84,086 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 16,798 bp, and two separated inverted repeat (IR) regions of 25,744 bp each. The chloroplast genome encodes 130 genes, including 85 protein-coding genes, 37 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and 8 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The GC content of the whole chloroplast genome is 37.6%. Phylogenetic analysis based on complete chloroplast genomes of L. loudonii and 17 other plant species revealed that Lagerstroemia is a separate genus, and L. loudonii is closely related to L. calyculata.

A new species, Rohdea maoershanensis, endemic to the Mao’er Mountain National Nature Reserve in northern Guangxi, is described herein. It is morphologically similar to R. chinensis, R. jinshanensis, and R. chlorantha, but it is easy to distinguish from the latter three because of leaves 9–13, linear, length of peduncle about 22 cm, length of bract about 3 mm, triangular lanceolate, filament base enlarged and connected to form a rough annular appendage, ovary is flattened spherical shape. Following the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (Version 3.1) [C2(a)(ii)], the species is preliminarily classified as Endangered (EN).