Plazia

Shrubs 1–2 m tall, the branches erect to ascending; stems lacking spines. Leaves simple, sessile, in whorls at branch tips; blades lanceolate to oblanceolate, glabrous to glandular, usually appressed, the margins entire. Capitulescences of solitary, terminal heads, sessile. Capitula heterogamous, radiate or more rarely homogamous, discoid; involucres cylindrical to campanulate; receptacles plane, glabrous; phyllaries 5–7-seriate, lanceolate; ray florets 5–25, the corollas ligulate-bilabiate, the outer lip 4-nerved, tridentate, the inner lip bifid; styles cylindric, glabrous, bifid, the branches short, inconspicuous; disc florets 7–40, the corollas tubular, actinomorphic, glabrous, the limb deeply 5-lobed, the lobes greater than 1/3 the length of the corolla, coiled; anthers linear, the terminal appendages lanceolate, fused into a column, truncate, the bases caudate; styles claviform, the branches short, rounded. Achenes glabrous or glandular-pubescent; pappus of scabrid bristles, isomorphic, yellowish. Chromosome number: unknown.

All species are confined to the Andean Cordillera and associated inter-Andean valleys (Fig. 1). Two species are confinded to Peru; both are rare and only known from a few collection localities. Another species is restricted to the Andes of central Chile. Plazia daphanoides Wedd. is the only wideranging species, being recorded from southern Peru and adjacent Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, usually in high-elevation, dry sites (Cabrera 1978, Ferreyra 1980, 1995).

Plazia is a genus of South American plants in the family Asteraceae.

Species Plazia cheiranthifolia Wedd. - Coquimbo in Colombia Plazia conferta Ruiz & Pav. - Junín in Peru Plazia daphnoides Wedd. - Bolivia, Peru (Ayacucho), Chile (Tarapacá), Argentina (Jujuy, Mendoza, Salta) Plazia robinsonii M.O. Dillon & Sagást - Peru (Huamachuco) formerly included

transferred to other genera - Aphyllocladus Gypothamnium Hyalis

Plazia acaciifolia J. Koster - Hyalis lancifolia Baker Plazia pinnifolia (Phil.) O.Hoffm. - Gypothamnium pinifolium Phil. Plazia spartioides (Wedd.) Kuntze - Aphyllocladus spartioides Wedd.