This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keetia susu Cheek and K. futa Cheek from the Republic of Guinea, and K. abouabou Cheek from Ivory Coast are described here. Each species is assessed using the IUCN standard as, respectively, Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered. Each species is illustrated and mapped. A key to the 16 species of Keetia in West Africa (Senegal to Benin) is provided. The number of species of Keetia currently accepted is now known to total 35.

The use of different and often outmoded systems for the arrangement of collections in botanic gardens and herbaria hampers international research because it makes finding the location of a specific genus and family unpredictable. Following a series of international workshops, intended to develop a set of widely accepted circumscriptions of vascular plant families, a European and Australian consortium, the Vascular Plant Classification Committee (VPCC), was formed in 2008 to address the challenge of harmonizing collections (of living and preserved material and associated literary archives) across Europe and Australia; this was envisaged as an ambitious first step towards a globally accepted alignment of family circumscriptions and the use of an accepted unified linear sequence. In 2009, agreement on this was reached among six of the largest European botanical organizations, a pioneering scientific and political accomplishment. Global acceptance of this arrangement is now beginning to gather pace. A network of organizations adopting this new classification and sequence (or intending to, when resources allow) is developing and now reaches across five continents. In this article, we outline the aims of and progress made by the VPCC, and acknowledge the resources required for the reorganization of large collections, with a particular focus on those at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The importance of a dynamic sequence, reflective of taxonomic changes, and the ways in which such changes can be incorporated into collections are discussed. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 172, 127–141.

To achieve conservation success, we need to support the recovery of threatened species. Yet, <5% of plant species listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List have Species Conservation Action Plans (CAPs). If we are to move from a Red List to a Green List for threatened plant species, CAPs need to be devised and implemented. Guinea is one of the most botanically diverse countries in West Africa. Recent research found that nearly 4000 vascular plants occur in Guinea, a 30% increase from previous estimates. 273 of these plant species are now assessed as threatened with global extinction. There is increasing pressure on the environment from the extractive industry and a growing population. In parallel with implementation of an Important Plant Area programme in Guinea, CAPs were developed for 20 threatened plant species. These plans elaborate conservation efforts needed first to safeguard threatened species both in situ and ex situ and then to support their recovery. We document the approach used to assemble the Species Conservation Action Plans, and we discuss the importance of having up to date field information, IUCN Red List assessments, and use of a collaborative approach. The need for these plans is increasingly important with recent calculations suggesting a third of African plants are threatened with extinction. This paper outlines initial detailed plant conservation planning in Guinea and offers a template for conservation practitioners in other tropical African countries to follow.