Moquiniastrum (Cabrera) G. Sancho, 2013

Sancho, Gisela, Funk, Ki. A. & Roque, Nádia, 2013, Moquiniastrum (Gochnatieae, Asteraceae): disentangling the paraphyletic Gochnatia, Phytotaxa 147 (1), pp. 26-34 : 29

Moquiniastrum (Cabrera) G. Sancho , gen. et stat. nov.

Basionym: Gochnatia sect. Moquiniastrum Cabrera (1971: 73) . Type:— Moquiniastrum polymorphum ( Lessing 1832: 101) G. Sancho.

Gochnatia subgen. Hedraiophyllum Lessing (1832: 103) . Type:— Gochnatia cordata Lessing (1830: 263) .

Description: —Shrubs, sub-shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, petiolate to sub-sessile, limb discolor, elliptic or rarely ovate or cordate, pubescent usually on abaxial face (indumentum of 2–5-armed trichomes) or less commonly on both faces, margin entire or serrate. Capitula isomorphic or sub-dimorphic, homogamous (florets female or hermaphrodite) or heterogamous (florets female and hermaphrodite) arranged in usually leafy paniculiform or less commonly corymbiform synflorescences. Involucre campanulate to cylindrical, shorter than the florets; phyllaries (2–)3–6-seriate, graduate, coriaceous or sub-coriaceous, pubescent. Hermaphrodite florets with corollas whitish, whitish-yellow or greenish, actinomorphic, deeply 5-lobed, lobes revolute; anthers with apiculate apical appendages and long, glabrous, laciniate or plumose tails; styles with stylopodium, bilobed, style branches short, dorsally glabrous. Functionally female florets marginal in heterogamous capitula, with corollas whitish, whitish-yellow or greenish, usually sub-zygomorphic or less commonly actinomorphic, deeply 5-lobed, lobes straight to slightly revolute; anthers reduced to staminodes; styles similar to hermaphrodite florets. Cypselas cylindrical to cuneate, costate, sericeous. Pappus of 2–3- seriate scabrous bristles, whitish when live, brownish when dry, equally wide throughout, unequal in length, the longest ones plumose at the apex.

Number of species and distribution: — Twenty-one species from central-eastern Argentina (3 species), eastern Brazil (19 species), Bolivia (3 species), Paraguay (6 species), Peru (1 species), Venezuela (1 species), and Uruguay (1 species). Notes : 1. The number of species per country could potentially rise after a more exhaustive collection in eastern Peru and Bolivia; 2. All Asteraceae types originally housed in Berlin ( B) were destroyed in 1943 (for a summary see Hiepko 1987) .