''Verbesina centroboyacana'' is a species of

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 ...

in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

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 ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Description

Shrub that reaches 8 ft (2.5 m) in height. The leaves are alternate, coriaceous, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, glabrous on the upper surface and lower side; the apex is acute, the base is attenuated, forming a pseudopeciolus; Revolute margin, dentated only in upper two-thirds; pinnate venation.

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 ...

corymbs Corymb is a botanical term for an inflorescence with the flowers growing in such a fashion that the outermost are borne on longer pedicels than the inner, bringing all flowers up to a common level. A corymb has a flattish top with a superficial re ...

panicles A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are o ...

, the

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

are villous. Uniseriate bell-shaped involucre; the involucral bracts are linear-oblong, widened at the base and acute at the apex, glabrous or with sericeous indumentum towards the base. Convex receptacle; the paleas are oblong, folded, acute, glabrous, dark and with translucent spots, slightly ciliated on the margin. The flowers are white, with 5-10 female ray florets, ligulate, with a pubescent tube, the

ligule A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...

is elliptical and tridentate, the style is bifid and glabrous, the

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

is triquetral, uniaristate and without a fin; with about 20 disk florets, hermaphroditic, with hairy tubulous corolla, slightly pentadentate, the teeth are oblong;

anthers The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

blackish with a mutic base. Obovate compressed achenes 4 mm in length, the external ones are thicker, hairy and with a poorly developed fin; the internal ones with scant indumentum, and a clear and ciliated fin; pappus formed by two ciliated edges.

Distribution

It is endemic to Colombia and is distributed along the Eastern Cordillera in the departments of Boyacá and Cundinamarca. It can be found between 1990 and 3120 meters above sea level.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15563574 centroboyacana Endemic flora of Colombia Plants described in 1985