Buddleja speciosissima

Buddleja speciosissima
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Buddlejaceae
Genus: Buddleja
Species: B. speciosissima
Binomial name
Buddleja speciosissima
Taub.
Synonyms
  • Buddleja ulei Dusen

Buddleja speciosissima is a rare species restricted to Mount Itatiaia in Brazil, where it grows in rocky grassland at altitudes of 2,000 - 2,500 m; it was first described and named by Taubert in 1893.[1][2]

Description

B. speciosissima is a shrub 1 3 m high with light-brown fissured bark. It bears hermaphroditic flowers, unlike most South American members of the genus which are cryptically dioecious.[2] The young branches are thick, subquadrangular, and covered with a dense pale yellow indumentum, bearing subcoriaceous elliptic to lanceolate leaves with 1 3.5 cm petioles, and measuring 10 18 cm long by 2 4 cm wide, glabrescent above but tomentose below. The reddish-orange leafy inflorescences are 10 20 cm long, comprising 1 2 orders of branches bearing paired 3 flowered cymes, the corollas 25 30 mm long by 4 mm wide, pollination being by hummingbirds. Ploidy: 2n = 38.[2]

Cultivation

The shrub is not known to be in cultivation.

References

  1. Taubert, P. W. H. (1913). Bot. Jahrb Syst. 17: 513. 1893
  2. 1 2 3 Norman, E. M. (2000). Buddlejaceae. Flora Neotropica 81. New York Botanical Garden, USA
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