''Buddleja speciosissima'' is a rare species restricted to Mount Itatiaia in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, where it grows in rocky grassland at elevations of 2,000–2,500 m. It was first described and named by Taubert in 1893.Taubert, P. W. H. (1913). ''Bot. Jahrb Syst.'' 17: 513. 1893Norman, E. M. (2000). Buddlejaceae. ''Flora Neotropica 81''. New York Botanical Garden, USA

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 Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

which are cryptically

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 ...

. 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 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 ...

below. The reddish-orange

leafy LEAFY (abbreviated LFY) is a plant gene that causes groups of undifferentiated Cell (biology), cells called meristems to develop into flowers instead of leaves with associated shoots. ''LEAFY'' is involved in floral meristem identity. ''LEAFY'' ...

inflorescences An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

are 10–20 cm long, comprising 1–2 orders of branches bearing paired three flowered

cymes 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 on ...

, the corollas 25–30 mm long by 4 mm wide, pollination being by

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...

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

The shrub is rare in cultivation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4984718 speciosissima Flora of Brazil Flora of South America