Leaf development, a critical stage in the plant life cycle, involves coordinated physiological and morphogenetic processes marked by dynamic shifts in molecular mechanisms and metabolite profiles. The Cibotium barometz (L.) J. Sm., a traditional medicinal plant, contain bioactive compounds known for alleviating rheumatism, polyuria, lumbago, and other disorders. The dynamic changes in overall molecular mechanisms and metabolite accumulation during C. barometz leaf growth and development remain unknown. In this study, next-generation sequencing was employed to generate the C. barometz leaf transcriptome at two developmental stages, enabling an assessment of gene expression changes, particularly in transcription factors regulating leaf formation and metabolite accumulation. De novo assembly of high-quality reads yielded 115 749 unigenes with an average length of 1281 bp. FPKM-based analysis revealed significant transcriptome changes during leaf development. Additionally, non-targeted metabolomics identified 1498 analytes, with lipids comprising the largest proportion of metabolites in both C. barometz samples. This study provides dynamic models of transcriptome and metabolite changes, uncovering key regulatory networks involved in C. barometz leaf growth and development, and enhances the annotation of the C. barometz genome, laying the groundwork for future research.

The genus Sabia is a woody climber belonging to the family Sabiaceae, order Proteales. Several species of this genus have been utilized as medicines for treating diseases, such as rheumatic arthritis, traumatism, hepatitis, etc. However, the lack of molecular data has prevented the accurate identification and refinement of taxonomic relationships in this genus. In this study, chloroplast genomes of 11 samples of the genus Sabia were assembled and analyzed. These chloroplast genomes showed a typical quadripartite structure and ranged in length from 160,956 to 162,209 bp. The structure of the genomes was found to be relatively conserved, with 130 genes annotated, including 85 coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. A total of 78–98 simple sequence repeats and 52–61 interspersed repeats were detected. Sequence alignment revealed 11 highly variable loci in chloroplast genomes. Among these loci, ndhF-ndhD achieved a remarkably higher resolution than the other regions. In addition, phylogenetic analysis indicated that Sect. Pachydiscus and Sect. Sabia of Sabia did not form two separate monophyletic groups. The divergence time calculated based on the Reltime method indicated that the evolutionary branches of Sabia and Meliosma started to form approximately 85.95 million years ago (Mya), and the species within Sabia began to diverge approximately 7.65 Mya. In conclusion, our study provides a basis for comprehensively exploring the phylogenetic relationships of Sabia. It also provides a methodological basis and data support for establishing a standardized and scientific identification system for this genus.

Melanoseris kangdingensis, a new species native to western Sichuan, China, is firstly described and illustrated, and its conservation status is also assessed. It bears resemblance to M. macrantha and M. bracteata in terms of morphology; however, there are distinguishing characteristics in terms of their leaf structure, presence of bracts, hairiness of involucre, number of florets, and length of both stamen tube and achene’s beak.

A new flavonol glycoside named Sabiapside A (1), along with four known compounds, quercetin-3-O-gentiobioside (2), camellianoside (3), isobariclisin-3-O- rutinoside (4), tsubakioside A (5), was isolated from Sabia parviflora. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis including MS, UV, IR and NMR data. The antioxidant activities of these glycosides evaluated by ABTS⁺ and DPPH radical scavenging reaction was higher than that of vitamin C used as the reference antioxidant.