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The increasing influence of APG classification system necessitates an update on taxa recorded in most regional floras including Iran. Many changes in circumscriptions of families and orders have occurred in APG in comparison with other classification systems. However, here we only attempt to emphasize on changes in the Iranian flora, especially in comparison with “Flora Iranica” and “Flora of Iran”. Of the overall 132 family names which have been mentioned here, 22 families are not found in Flora Iranica. Based on the APG IV system, 21 families which had been mentioned in Flora Iranica for Iran should be merged with other families. Accordingly, the angiosperms of Iran comprise 8012 species, approximately 1234 genera and 132 families placed in 39 orders. Gymnosperms (17 spp.), ferns (60 spp.) and mosses (534 spp.) included, the number of plant species of Iran exceeds approximately 8628 species. The largest angiosperms families of Iran are Fabaceae (1401 spp.) and Asteraceae (1234 spp.) in terms of number of species, and Asteraceae, Poaceae, Apiaceae and Fabaceae in terms of number of genera. The largest angiosperm order of Iran in terms of family number is Caryophyllales. The largest genera of Iran are Astragalus with about 830 species and Cousinia with about 280 species. In the two latest versions of APG a linear sequence of families is provided to be used by herbarium curators.

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Considering fundamental changes in the classification of angiosperms, based on phylogenetic studies, makes revising and updating Floras inevitable. Hence, in this paper, changes in the flora of Afghanistan have been listed and compared with the flora of Iran. As the latest studies indicate, according to APG IV system, the flora of Afghanistan comp-rises 40 orders, 130 families, about 1030 genera and 5065 species of angiosperms. In comparison the flora of Iran comprises 42 orders, 139 families, nearly 1252 genera and 8090 species of angiosperms. Moreover, the two countries share 39 orders, 124 families, 844 genera and about 1800 species. In Afghanistan the largest number of families belongs to Lamiales and in Iran to Caryophyllales. Asteraceae contains the largest number of genera in both countries. As far as the number of species in concerned, the largest angiosperms family in Afghanistan is Asteraceae, but in Iran it is Fabaceae. The most diverse ge-nera of both countries are Astragalus and Cousinia respectively. Gymnosperms have two orders, four families, seven genera and 22 species in Afghanistan, while in Iran they have two orders, three families, five genera and 17 species. By adding 58 species of pteridophytes and 311 species of bryophytes to Afghanistan’s flora and 60 species of pteridophytes and 534 spec-ies of bryophytes to Iran’s flora, in total, Embryophyta have approximately 5460 species in Afghanistan and 8700 species in Iran.

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Nutlets of 20 taxa of Phlomoides, representing most of the currently recognized sections were examined by scanning electron microscopy. The basic shape of nutlets in most taxa studied is broadly ovate, but ovate, triangular and oblong ones can also be found in few species. Regarding the sculpturing pattern of nutlet surface, four basic types can be distinguished: reticulate, scalariform, ruminate and rugose. The reticulate type is the most common among the studied species, but the variation in alignment, size and shape of its composing cells provide further evidence that are useful as diagnostic characteristics. However, the type of sculpturing is more useful for separating species within the sections, rather than correlating them to each other. For example, sect. Filipendula show four different types of sculpturing. Therefore, nutlet microsculpturing is not useful in separating large natural groups like sections in this genus. It seems also that contrary to other genera of Lamiaceae, nutlet characters are of low phylogenetic value in this genus.