Buddleja speciosissima
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]
Buddleja speciosissima | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Lamiales |
Family: | Scrophulariaceae |
Genus: | Buddleja |
Species: | B. speciosissima |
Binomial name | |
Buddleja speciosissima | |
Synonyms | |
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Description
Buddleja 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
- Taubert, P. W. H. (1913). Bot. Jahrb Syst. 17: 513. 1893
- Norman, E. M. (2000). Buddlejaceae. Flora Neotropica 81. New York Botanical Garden, USA