Quelchia

Authority

Maguire, Bassett, et al. 1957. Botany of the Chimanta Massif - I Gran Sabana, Venezuela. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 9 (3): 393-484.

Family

Asteraceae

Scientific Name

Quelchia

Description

Latin Diagnosis - Inflorescences loosely or compactly glomerate, axillary; heads uniflorous; involucre small, cylindric, phyllaries 8-12; corolla regular, thin-textured, the lobes and tube subequal, the first 2-veined, the tube 5-veined, the lobes recurved; filaments short, attached in the sinus; caudal appendage of the anthers sagittate, connate except at the tip; pollen grains yellowish, tricolporate, furrows long pointed; grains subprolate to prolate, sphaeroidal, spinulose; polar axis 50-55 µ; style glabrous, bulbous at the base, the branches moderately long (1.5-1.75 mm), recurved, dilated compressed, bluntly 3-lobed at the apex, the marginal stigmatic lines obvious; achene fusiform, 10-nerved, annulate at the base, the disk at the summit broader than the body; corona 2-3 mm long, entire; pappus 3-4-seriate, the setae filamentous, flattened at the base, barbellate.

Species Description - Branched or virgate shrubs with alternate net-veined leaves and malpighioid pubescence. A genus of four species and one recognized hybrid population. Confined to the mesitas of the Roraima chain and Chimanta-tepui.

Discussion

TYPE species: Quelchia conferta N. E. Brown.