Achnopogon

  • Authority

    Maguire, Bassett & Wurdack, John J. 1957. The Botany of the Guiana Highland -- Part II. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 9 (3): 235-392.

  • Family

    Asteraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Achnopogon

  • Discussion

    A suffrutescent shrub with a short thick primary axis bearing short-shoots terminated by dense rosettes of leaves, and provided with one or several virgate branches. Its phyllaries are strongly bearded, corollas puberulent, and anthers simply caudate but not sagittate, a feature peculiar to this among all the Guayana genera.

    Monotypic Glossarion presents a particular problem, seeming to bridge or transcent the limits of the subtribes Gochnatinae and Mutisinae. In facies the shrub recalls the stenopadoid assemblage. The ligulate corolla has five equal lobes; hence, if reconstructed as a wholly gamopetalous corolla, it would certainly be actinomorphic and not bilabiate. Styles are smooth as in members of the Mutisinae, and the leaf base is half-clasping as in Gongylolepis.