''Aldama sodiroi'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the family

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

. It is found only in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

is subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

s. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. After molecular phylogenetic studies by botanists Schilling and Panero in 2011, showed that some species that were formerly classified in the genus ''Viguiera'', were then transferred to genus '' Aldama''. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

of ''sodiroi'' refers to

Luis Sodiro Luis Sodiro (1836–1909) was an Italian Jesuit priest and a field botanist from Vicenza who described a large number of species from the area around Quito, Ecuador in the early 20th century. He was perhaps the first person who collected in thi ...

(1836–1909), who was an Italian Jesuit priest and a field botanist,who collected many plants in Ecuador.

References

Endemic flora of Ecuador Vulnerable flora of South America Plants described in 2011 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Heliantheae-stub