Shrubs or small trees to 5 m tall, with few branches; stems brownish to reddish-brown, terete, scarcely striate, hirtellous in younger parts, the pith solid. Leaves opposite; blades broadly ovate, to 15 cm long and 12 cm wide, the base truncate or short-cuneate, the margins serrate to slightly doubly serrate, the apex narrowly short-acuminate, the surface glabrate, sparsely glandular-punctate, the venation trinervate from the base; petioles slender, to 9 cm long. Inflorescence pyramidally corymbose-paniculate with large heads usually contiguous when pressed, the ultimate branches 0.5-2.5 cm long, hirtellous; receptacle glabrous. Heads 15-20 mm high and ca. 10 mm wide with 60-75 florets; involucral bracts ca. 40-50, imbricate, in 4-5 series, broadly ovate to oblong with rounded sometimes erose or reflexed tips, the outer surface glabrous, with 4-8 distinct costae, a few linear deciduous inner bracts; corolla white, mostly 6-8 mm long, with only a few capitate glands on outer surface of lobes. Achenes ca. 2 mm long, usually com-pletely glabrous; pappus of ca. 60 fine bristles in 2 series.
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ranges from central Mexico south to Panama.
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