''Velascoa'' is a
monotypic genus of
flowering plants belonging to the family
Crossosomataceae. It only contains one known species, ''Velascoa recondita''
Calderón & Rzed.
It is native to a single location (as far as known at the time of discovery) in
Landa de Matamoros Municipality
Landa de Matamoros Municipality is a Municipalities of Mexico State, municipality in Querétaro in central Mexico.
The seat is Landa de Matamoros.
The municipality
The town of Landa de Matamoros is the local governing authority for 130 commun ...
in
Querétaro
Querétaro (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro, links=no; Otomi language, Otomi: ''Hyodi Ndämxei''), is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. I ...
in central
Mexico.
The genus name of ''Velascoa'' is in honour of
José María Velasco Gómez
José María Tranquilino Francisco de Jesús Velasco Gómez Obregón, generally known as José María Velasco, (Temascalcingo, 6 July 1840Estado de México, 26 August 1912) was a 19th-century Mexican polymath, most famous as a painter who made M ...
(1840–1912), a Mexican painter,
polymath and naturalist.
The Latin
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
of
''recondita'' means 'hidden', and was chosen to allude to being found in truly hidden locations, far from roads and villages, and for its habit of growing hidden in cracks amongst
limestone boulders on inaccessible, vertical cliffs. Because of the harsh climate, it took botanists five years, after discovering the plant, to collect flowers and mature fruit of an individual to make a good
holotype, so the new species could be properly
described.
[ It was first described and published in 1997 in volume 39 of the ''Acta Botanica Mexicana'' on page 54, by the Mexican husband-wife team of botanists Graciela Calderon de Rzedowski and Jerzy Rzedowski.][
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q6160064, from2=Q17395858
Crossosomataceae
Rosid genera
Plants described in 1997
Flora of Northeastern Mexico