''Buddleja megalocephala'' is a 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 els ...

to Guatemala, in the Central Highlands, the

Sierra de los Cuchumatanes The Sierra de los Cuchumatanes is the highest non-volcanic mountain range in Central America. Its elevations range from to over , and it covers a total area of .Lovell 2005:11 With an area of situated above , it is also the most extensive hig ...

, and Mt. Tacana on the border with

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, where it grows in open areas associated with evergreen cloud forest at elevations of 2700 – 4,000 m.Norman, E. M. (2000). Buddlejaceae. ''Flora Neotropica 81''. New York Botanical Garden, USA The species was first named and described by

Smith Smith may refer to: People * Metalsmith, or simply smith, a craftsman fashioning tools or works of art out of various metals * Smith (given name) * Smith (surname), a family name originating in England, Scotland and Ireland ** List of people w ...

in 1897.Donn. (1897). ''Bot. Gaz. 23: 10. 1897.

Description

''Buddleja megalocephala'' 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 reproducti ...

tree 5 – 15 m high with a trunk < 65 cm in diameter at the base, with brown fissured bark. The young branches are thick, quadrangular and densely

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 plan ...

, bearing lanceolate or elliptic-oblong leaves 7 – 20 cm long by 2 – 6 cm wide on 1 – 2 cm petioles, 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 ...

above, tomentose below. The

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 ...

measures 6 – 20 cm by 8 – 10 cm, comprising globose heads in

racemes A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the sh ...

, occasionally with two orders of branches; the heads 1.2 – 2 cm in diameter, each with 40 – 50 orange flowers; the corollas 4 – 5 mm long.

Ploidy Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respective ...

: ''2n'' = 76.

Cultivation

The tree is in commerce in the UK; suppliers can be found in the RHS ''Plantfinder'

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4984682 Buddleja, megalocephala Flora of Guatemala Flora of Mexico Flora of Central America Dioecious plants