The Australian taxon commonly treated as Pluchea tetranthera is revised and shown to represent a complex of three closely related endemic species, i. e. Pluchea tetranthera, P. ferdinandi-muelleri and P. dunlopii. P. dunlopii is described as a species new to science. Morphological characters of fruits and seeds of 23 Cuban species are studied. The pericarp is made of a woody exocarp and a pergamentous to cartilaginous endocarp.
Fruitlet dehiscence takes place slowly and the shiny dark seed persists in the dehisced follicle.
In spite of some variability in the shape of fruitlets and seeds as well as in the mode of follicle dehiscence, fruitlets and seeds provide taxonomically relevant combinations of characters. These characters occur in combination with a specific shape of follicle and seed. For Cuban species five types are described. Engler's grouping system of the Zanthoxylum species with biseriate perianth is discussed. The species richness of French Guiana is still imperfectly known.