A NEW SPECIES OF VIGUIERA (ASTERACEAE: HELIANTHEAE)

Suffrutescent, 1-1.5 m tall; stems terete, brown or olive, densely villous to sericeous when young, thinly sericeous to glabrate with age, trichomes white, multicellular, sinuous, appressed to suberect, 0.8-1.5 mm long; leaves opposite at base, alternative above, thinly sericeous adaxially, trichomes as on stems, only slightly enlarged at base, 0.8-1.5 mm long, densely sericeous and silvery abaxially, trichomes as on adaxial surface, subsessile capitate glands lacking; blades of lower leaves 6-9 cm long, 27-62 mm wide, deltate to ovate or lance-ovate, apex acuminate, base cordate and then cuneately narrowed to petiole, the 2 major lateral veins bounding the cuneate base, margins minutely dentate with 6-10 teeth per side; blades of upper leaves 3-6 cm long, 12-22 mm wide, lance-ovate to rhombic or trullate, apex acute to acuminate, base attenuate to cuneate, margins entire or subentire; petioles 4-25 mm long, sericeous; synflorescence monochasial, thyrsoid, with successive paracladia arranged alternately at lower nodes and later paracladia commonly exceeding height of earlier ones, of 2-12 heads per paracladium; peduncles 1.5-8 cm long, thinly sericeous; heads 8-15 mm high, hemispherical, disk 8-15 mm in diam; phyllaries 10-15 in 2 (3) graduated series, 2.8-6 mm long, 1.1-2.1 mm wide, lanceolate to ovate, the base somewhat thickened but not markedly different in texture from the apex, puberulent or somewhat mealy, with few and scattered to numerous longer trichomes similar to those of leaves and stem; pales conduplicate, lance-ovate to lanceolate, 6-9 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, stramineus with upper part of midrib and apex darker brown, abaxial surface puberulent along midrib, adaxial surface glabrous, apex acute to slightly 3-lobed; ray flowers 6-1 1, sterile, corolla golden-yellow, ligule 12-14 mm long, 6-7 mm wide, oval to lanceolate, abaxial surface glabrate, puberulent along veins, apex bifid or trifid, tube 1.6-1.8 mm long, sparsely puberulent and glandular, ray ovary 2.8-3 mm long, 1 mm wide, flattened and slightly triquetrous, pubescent, epappose or with pappus of 2 or 3 awns ca 0.8 mm long; disk flowers 32-60, corollas yellow to orange-yellow, slightly campanulate, tube 0.9-1.5 mm long, 0.5-0.7 mm wide, slightly wider and thicker at base, puberulent and glandular, throat 3.5-4.3 mm long, 1.1-1.5 mm wide, sometimes slightly bulbous at base, sparsely puberulent; lobes deltate, reflexed, orange-yellow, 0.8-1 mm long, puberulent abaxially; anthers 3.6-3.7 mm long, thecae brown to black, appendages 0.7-0.8 mm long, light