''Buddleja mendozensis'' is an extremely variable species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the xeric and subxeric areas of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, from

Jujuy San Salvador de Jujuy (), commonly known as Jujuy and locally often referred to as San Salvador, is the capital and largest city of Jujuy Province in Argentine Northwest, northwest Argentina. Also, it is the seat of the Doctor Manuel Belgrano Depa ...

to southern Mendoza and

La Pampa La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza. History I ...

, where it grows on rocks at altitudes of 600 – 3,000 m.Norman, E. M. (2000). Buddlejaceae. ''Flora Neotropica 81''. New York Botanical Garden, USA The species was first named by

Gillies Gillies is both a Scottish surname and a given name shared by several notable people: Surname uses Politicians * Duncan Gillies (1834–1903), Australian colonial and state politician * James McPhail Gillies (born 1924), Canadian national pol ...

,Gibbs, F. W. (1951). John Gillies, M.D., Traveller and Botanist, 1792 – 1834. ''Notes & Records of the Royal Society'', 1951. pp. 115 – 136. and described by Bentham in 1846.Bentham, G. (1845). ''DC., Prodromus'' 10: 443. 1846.

Description

''Buddleja mendozensis'' is a

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

0.2 – 2 m high with greyish bark. The young branches are sub terete and

tomentose Trichomes (); ) are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant ...

, bearing leaves of very variable shape 0.5 – 8 cm long by 0.2 – 2 cm wide, membranaceous to subcoriaceous,

glabrescent Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

to tomentose above, and densely tomentose below. The yellow to orange

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

comprises 2 – 5 pairs of small globose heads in the axils of the terminal leaves; the corollas 3.5 – 4.5 mm long.

Ploidy Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell (biology), cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for Autosome, autosomal and Pseudoautosomal region, pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of mat ...

: ''2n'' = 38.

Cultivation

''Buddleja mendozensis'' is not known to be in cultivation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4984684 mendozensis Flora of Argentina Flora of South America Dioecious plants