Buddleja speciosissima

Buddleja speciosissima
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Embryophytes
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Spermatophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Scrophulariaceae
Genus:	Buddleja
Species:	B. speciosissima
Binomial name
Buddleja speciosissima Taub.
Synonyms
Buddleja ulei Dusen

Buddleja speciosissima is a rare species restricted to Mount Itatiaia in Brazil, where it grows in rocky grassland at elevations of 2,000–2,500 m. It was first described and named by Taubert in 1893.¹²

Buddleja speciosissima is a shrub 1–3 m high with light-brown fissured bark. It bears hermaphroditic flowers, unlike most South American members of the genus which are cryptically dioecious.² The young branches are thick, subquadrangular, and covered with a dense pale yellow indumentum, bearing subcoriaceous elliptic to lanceolate leaves with 1–3.5 cm petioles, and measuring 10–18 cm long by 2–4 cm wide, glabrescent above but tomentose below. The reddish-orange leafy inflorescences are 10–20 cm long, comprising 1–2 orders of branches bearing paired three flowered cymes, the corollas 25–30 mm long by 4 mm wide, pollination being by hummingbirds. Ploidy: 2n = 38.²

The shrub is rare in cultivation.