Coarse herbs or shrubs to 3 m tall, sometimes epiphytic; stems terete or somewhat grooved, essentially glabrous, fistulose. Leaves opposite; blades papy-raceous to slightly fleshy, ovate to oblong-ovate, to 15 cm long and 12 cm wide, the base cuneate to truncate, the margins slightly to coarsely serrate, the apex sharply acute to narrowly short-acuminate, the upper surface essentially glabrous, the lower surface sparsely minutely puberulous, the venation pinnate with many pairs of secondary veins often concentrated in basal fourth; petioles to 7 cm long, glabrous to slightly puberulous. Inflorescence a loose sometimes elongate panicle with corymbose branches, to 30 cm wide and sometimes 40 cm high, the ultimate branches mostly 2-5 mm long, rather densely puberulous. Heads ca. 7 mm high with 5-12 florets; involucral bracts ca. 18-20, imbricate, in ca. 3 series, unequal, mostly 2-5 mm long, the apices obtusely acute to narrowly rounded, the outer surfaces minutely puberulous to glabrate, the outer bracts narrowly ovate or oblong to elliptical, the inner bracts oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate; receptacle slightly puberulous; corolla lavender, 4.5-5.0 mm long, funnelform, the tube usually 1.5-2.0 mm long, the limb with numerous hairs on inner surface, the lobes 0.7-0.8 mm long and ca. 0.7 mm wide, with few short hairs and few short-stalked glands on outer surface; style base enlarged, glabrous. Achenes prismatic, ca. 2 mm long, mostly glabrous with a few spicules at upper end; carpopodium short, the cells small, in ca. 6 series; pappus of 35-50 bristles, the tips not or scarcely enlarged, the apical cells acute.
Home