Raphiocarpustaygiangensis (Gesneriaceae), a new species from central Vietnam.

Raphiocarpustaygiangensis, a new species of Gesneriaceae family discovered in Tay Giang District, Quang Nam Province, Central Vietnam, is here described and illustrated. The new species is diagnosed by the combination of its stem up to 2 m long, sericeous hairs on young stem, leaf petiole and adaxial mid-vein, sparsely and minutely serrate leaf margin, axillary inflorescence spreading along stem, sparsely long gland-tipped hairs on peduncle, pedicel, calyx, outside corolla and pistil, calyx 5-disparted from base, purplish white flower with purple stripes inside corolla tube, and dish-shaped stigma formed by 2 semi-orbicular lobes horizontally expanding. Distinct features of the new species and its morphologically closest congener, Rhaphiocarpusaxillaris, are compared and discussed. The conservation status of the described species is estimated as Vulnerable (VU D2) according to the IUCN Red List Criteria.

Contributions to the biodiversity of Vietnam - Results of VIETBIO inventory work and field training in Cuc Phuong National Park.

VIETBIO [Innovative approaches to biodiversity discovery and characterisation in Vietnam] is a bilateral German-Vietnamese research and capacity building project focusing on the development and transfer of new methods and technology towards an integrated biodiversity discovery and monitoring system for Vietnam. Dedicated field training and testing of innovative methodologies were undertaken in Cuc Phuong National Park as part and with support of the project, which led to the new biodiversity data and records made available in this article collection. VIETBIO is a collaboration between the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin - Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science (MfN), the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin (BGBM) and the Vietnam National Museum of Nature (VNMN), the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR), the Southern Institute of Ecology (SIE), as well as the Institute of Tropical Biology (ITB); all Vietnamese institutions belong to the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST). The article collection "VIETBIO" (https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.coll.63) reports original results of recent biodiversity recording and survey work undertaken in Cuc Phuong National Park, northern Vietnam, under the framework of the VIETBIO project. The collection consist of this "main" cover paper - characterising the study area, the general project approaches and activities, while also giving an extensive overview on previous studies from this area - followed by individual papers for higher taxa as studied during the project. The main purpose is to make primary biodiversity records openly available, including several new and interesting findings for this biodiversity-rich conservation area. All individual data papers with their respective primary records are expected to provide useful baselines for further taxonomic, phylogenetic, ecological and conservation-related studies on the respective taxa and, thus, will be maintained as separate datasets, including separate GUIDs also for further updating.