Blanchetia heterotricha Candolle (1836: 75)

Loeuille, Benoît, Semir, João & Pirani, José R., 2019, A synopsis of Lychnophorinae (Asteraceae: Vernonieae), Phytotaxa 398 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

2. Blanchetia heterotricha Candolle (1836: 75) .Type:— BRAZIL. Bahia : in Brasiliâ ad Caxoeira ab urbe Bahiâ leucis 15 dist., 1832, J. S. Blanchet 312 (holotype: G-DC e! [G00464298], photo at US; isotypes: presumably C e! [C10007011], presumably F e! [F1013211], presumably G e! [G00222703, G00222704], presumably GH e! [GH00004247], presumably HAL e! [HAL0135491], K e! [K000068454], presumably MO e! [MO5484147], presumably MPU e! [MPU012572], presumably P e! [P02837387, P02837388, P02837389], presumably S e! [S-R-665]) ( Fig. 11 A–B ).

Distribution and habitat: — Brazil (Alagoas, Bahia , Paraíba, Pernambuco and Sergipe). Caatinga, rarely in campo rupestre or secondary forest; up to 1500 m.

Taxonomic notes: —A common species. Differences with Blanchetia coronata are discussed under that species. Several sets of Blanchet collections of B. heterotricha were found in herbaria with no collector number, and all of them are usually considered isotypes. Here specimens with labels indicating 1839 (or 1839–1840), a posterior date of the publication of that species, are not considered as types (BM001009174 e!, F521031 e!, NY00162678, NY00162679). Insofar the remaining specimens do not present date or collector number, so it is impossible to know if they are isotypes or not, whereas the K specimen is labelled with the same locality annotation as cited in the protologue.

Representative specimens: — BRAZIL. Alagoas: Satuba, 1 June 1988, M . N .R. Staviski 588 ( HRB, MAC). Bahia : Morro do Chapéu, margem esquerda do Rio Ventura , 11°40’44.3’’S, 41°00’21.1’’W, 737 m, 4 February 2008, B . Loeuille et al. 394 ( HAW, K, SPF) . Paraíba: Campina Grande, 5 September 1977, M . F . Agra 225 ( RB) . Pernambuco: Caruaru, W of Recife , 25 September 1976, P . H . Davis & Andrade-Lima 61102 ( UEC) . Sergipe: Tobias Barreto, próximo a comunidade Borda da Mata , 11°08’20’’S, 37°54’32’’W, 187 m, 22 August 2005, D. S . Carneiro-Torres et al. 444 ( HUEFS) .

IV. Centratherum Cassini (1817a: 31) . Type:— Centratherum punctatum Cass.

Ampherephis Kunth in Humboldt et al. (1818: 24). Type:— Ampherephis mutica Kunth (= Centratherum punctatum Cass. ).

Spixia Schrank (1821 : tab. 80). Type:— Spixia violacea Schrank (= Centratherum punctatum Cass. ).

Amphibecis Humboldt ex Schrank (1823 or 1824: 86). Type:— Amphibecis violacea Schrank (= Centratherum punctatum Cass. ).

Oiospermum Lessing (1829: 339) . Type:— Oiospermum involucratum (Nees & Mart. in Wied-Neuwied 1824: 3) Less. (= Centratherum repens ( Sprengel 1821: 278) Loeuille & Pirani in Loeuille et al. 2014: 3).

Crantzia Vellozo (1831 : tab. 153), nom. illeg., non Scopoli (1777: 173). Type:— Crantzia ovata Vell. (= Centratherum punctatum Cass. ).

( Fig. 7 , 11 C–F ).

Annual to perennial herbs or subshrubs, decumbent to erect, stems branched. Indumentum glabrous to villous, composed of unbranched, T-shaped and L-shaped trichomes. Leaves alternate, sessile to shortly petiolate, sheathless, blade papiraceous, discolorous, margin serrate to dentate, lobed, flat (not revolute), eucamptodromous. Inflorescence a terminal, pedunculate, capitulum, usually solitary, rarely 2–3 capitula in a corymbe. Capitulum pedunculate, with foliaceous subinvolucral bracts. Involucre campanulate; phyllaries ca. 4-seriate, weakly imbricate, persistent, pubescent, outermost foliaceous and innermost scarious, apices rounded to long-awned; receptacle naked. Florets 25–100; corolla purple to reddish-purple, tube longer than limb, sometimes pubescent; anthers ecalcarate; style lacking basal node. Cypsela cylindrical to obconic, glabrous or pubescent; carpopodium inconspicuous; pappus uniseriate, deciduous to caducous, setose, stramineous, sometimes lacking. Chromosome number: n = 16 ( C. punctatum ).

Taxonomic notes: —A genus of three species from Tropical America and introduced in the Tropics. Its herbaceous to subshrubby habit, the usually solitary capitula and the foliaceous subinvolucral bracts are distinctive features in the subtribe, within which the genus was included only recently, based on phylogenetic grounds ( Loeuille et al. 2015a, b). The monotypic genus Oiospermum was set apart from Centratherum by the lack of pappus and a unique kind of cypsela setulae. However, Centratherum cardenasii also lacks pappus and consequently Oiospermum has been synonymized under Centratherum ( Loeuille et al. 2014) .

Figures

FIGURE 7. Geographic distribution of the subtribe Lychnophorinae (black line) and of the subtribe but Centratherum punctatum (dark grey shaded area), a species native to the Americas which became a widespread weed.

FIGURE 11. Blanchetia heterotricha. A. Flowering branch.B. Habit. Centratherum punctatum. C. Head (Brazil). D. Habit (Australia). E. Head in bud (Australia). F. Head (Costa Rica). A., C. by B. Loeuille. B. by M. Lusa. D.–E. by R. Cumming. F. by R. Aguilar.