An updated review of chromosome numbers in the Lecythidaceae is presented, which includes new counts forGustavia angustifolia andLecythis lanceolata (both withn=17) and gives identifications to species for five previously published counts based on unidentified material. The earlier conclusion that the largely Asian Planchonioideae havex=13, the African Napoleonaeoideae havex=16, and the New World Lecythidoideae havex=17 still holds. The new count ofn=21 forAsteranthos brasiliensis does not support the previous treatment ofAsteranthos, a monotypic genus of the upper Amazon drainage, as the only New World representative of the otherwise tropical west African Napoleonaeoideae. Mounting evidence favors recognition of a monotypic family, the Asteranthaceae, of yet unclear relationships.