Fleischmannia yungasensis (B.L. Rob.) R.M. King & H. Rob., Phytologia 19: 206. 1970

Robinson, Harold, 2015, The genus Fleischmannia in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay (Eupatorieae, Asteraceae), PhytoKeys 57, pp. 61-92 : 83-84

Fleischmannia yungasensis (B.L. Rob.) R.M. King & H. Rob., Phytologia 19: 206. 1970

Eupatorium yungasense B.L. Rob., Contrib. Gray Herb. 104: 30. 1934. Type: Bolivia, Nor-Yungas, Millugnaya, alt. 1300 m, Dec 1917, Buchtien 4407 (holotype GH; isotype US).

Description.

Scandent or subscandent perennial herbs, with all but most distal branches spreading at 90° angles, nearly straight or curving toward apex of main stem; stems hirtellous with reddish hairs; internodes 10-15 cm long; internodes of branchlets 2-3 cm long. Leaves opposite, leaves of main branches with petioles 10-22 mm long, densely hirtellous; leaf blades deltoid, 3.5-4.5 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide, widest in basal fifth, truncate with only slight acumination at petiole; ca. 8 or 10 teeth on each margin, apex narrowly acuminate, adaxial surface hispidulous with hairs reddish near margin and pale farther from margins, abaxially spreading hirtellous on main veins, between veins sparsely pilosulous, triplinervate with strongly ascending lateral veins from basal acumination; branchlet leaves with petioles 3-5 mm long, blades 1.5-2.0 cm long, 1.0-1.7cm wide, 5-7 teeth on each margin, apex weakly acuminate to acute, pubescence as in leaves. Inflorescence with small clusters of heads terminal on elongate main stems and branches, branches of inflorescence and peduncles densely hirtellous with reddish hairs and intermixed stipitate glands; peduncles 3-7 mm long; heads ca. 6 mm high, 3-4 mm wide; involucral bracts ca. 15, in ca. 4 series, 1.5-5.0 mm long, 1.0-1.2 mm wide, basal bracts ovate and acute, more herbaceous and densely pubescent, middle and inner bracts oblong, greenish to stramineous, with mostly 2 strong longitudinal veins, margins and tips scarious, apices obtuse. Florets ca. 15-17 in a head; corollas white. ca. 3.5 mm long, basal tube ca. 0.5 mm long, throat ca. 2.5 mm long, lobes ca. 0.5 mm long, with few hairs outside, anther thecae ca. 0.8 mm long, apical appendages ca. 0.25 mm long; style branches broadened distally to 0.3 mm wide. Achenes ca. 1.7 mm long, ribs scarcely pale, sparsely setuliferous; pappus ca. 3 mm long, of ca. 35 slender bristles not broader at base, not or scarcely contiguous.

Specimens seen.

Bolivia: La Paz: Sud Yungas, Yanacachi, camino haxia la Chojlla a la derecho primer desvic, al borde del camino, hierba apoyandose - 1.5 cm, flores blancas, 2100m, Matorral, secondary vegetation, 7 9 1987, E. Vargas & R. Seidel 490 (US, LPB). Bolivia. La Paz, Sud Yungas, Yanacachi, 1 km NNE de la Choilla, ladera de un arroyo, bosque bajo, 215- m.s.n.m. Trepadore colgante, 31 Oct. 1988, Seidel 1354 (LPB, US). La Paz: Sud Yungas, bajo de Pariguaya, 16°40'S, 67°31'W, 2000 m, bosque seco, arrina del río; subarbusto, 1 m, altos, flores blancas, 30 April 1995, St. S. Beck 22419 (LPB, US). La Paz: Inquisivi, 10 km al N de Inquisivi por el camino a Suri, al rededores del Puente sobre el Río Kato. Bosque seco con Prosopis , Acacia , Schinopsis y Pereskia , 16°48'S, 67°11'W, 2100-2200, semi-apoyante, hasta 2 m, corollas blancas, 12 march 1899, J.C. Solomon & M. Nee 18151 (MO, US); La Paz: Inquisivi. On the slope W of the Río Khatu between the mouth of the Río Cambillua and the Río Jokho Pampa, ca. 5 km SW of Inquisivi. Mostly semi-decidous chapparal-like scrub, 16°55'S, 57°11'W, 2500-2700 m, on bank in dry woodlands. Leaves purple, flowers white. 17 Aug 1988, Lewis 881098 (LPB, MO, US). La Paz: Inquisivi, Prov. "Huayra Pata"-Major ruin discovery of large fortelezas, irrigation canals and mysterious foundations cover this ridge which is 2 km NE of the mouth of the Río Aguilani at Lakachaka, and 2 km S of the junction of the Río Mikhailpurhua and Río Aduada. 11 km N of Choquetanga. Area of ancient ruins which has been overgrazed, burned and generally raped into semi-barren grassland with some small shrubs. Collected bordering woodlands and mattorales. 15°39'S 67°20'W, vine-like, with opposite leaves, inflorescence without rays, white, leaves rather dry and curled when collected. Shrubby woodland, 19 Nov.1991, M. Lewis 40569 (LPB, MO, US, Quime); La Paz: Inquisivi, comunidad Khora-Lakachaca, Cuenca del Río Miguillas, 20 km de Choquetanga, 16°30'S, 67°20'W, 1450 m, Bosque, de especies semideciduos, con varias Leguminosas-Mimosas vegetación sobre terrazas antiguas, Transecto 9, herbácea terrestre, flores blancas. 30 May 1994, M. Salinas 3061 (LPB, US). La Paz: Inguisivi, Camillaya arriba del pueblo, 16°48'S, 67°12'W, 3400 m, restos bosque alto-montano, apoyandose, tallos pargos de 4 m, flores blancas, 29 Sept. 1997, St. S. Beck 24350 (LPB, US).

Beck 24350, Solomon & Nee 18152, & Salinas 3041 previously have been misidentified as Fleischmannia soratae . The specimen E. Vargas & R. Seidel 490 is evidently the apical part of a branch, with persisting primary branch leaves and a pyramidal inflorescence. The Lewis collections seen are evidently cut from median segments of the stems showing the consistently widely spreading branches and lacking main axis leaves.

The species is by all indications scandent, although it is probably more of a scrambling vine. The reddish pubescence is rather distinctive but according to descriptions also occurs in Fleischmannia tamboensis of Bolivia and such species as Fleischmannia cookii (B.L. Rob.) R.M. King & H. Rob. and Fleischmannia rhodotephra (B.L. Rob.) R.M. King & H. Rob. in Peru. Fleischmannia tamboensis may be closely related, with its indument of red and glandular hairs, but that is from southernmost Bolivia in Tarija, and was described by Hieronymus (1897), one of its collectors, as suffruticose to 4 m tall, and sparsely branched, with membranaceous leaves with upper surfaces “scabriusculis” and abaxial surfaces scabrid on the nerves, and with peduncles ca. 6 mm long. This latter habit agrees with the type photograph that has been seen.