Lychnocephalus Mart. ex Candolle 1836

Lychnocephalus Mart. ex Candolle (1836: 83).

Type:— Lychnocephalus tomentosus Mart. ex DC.

Treelets, shrubs or subshrubs, frequently candelabriform; stems sparsely to moderately branched; branches cylindrical, delicate to robust, flexuous or not, densely tomentose to densely lanate, indumentum composed of usually unbranched, auriculate and 3–5-armed trichomes, stellate, T-shaped or Y-shaped trichomes, leaf scars linear. Leaves alternate, simple, sessile or petiolate, with a semi-amplexicaul to amplexicaul leaf sheath, spreading or ascending, weakly to moderately imbricate, sometimes crowded at apex; blade coriaceous, discolorous to strongly discolorous, margin entire to slightly sinuous, flat or revolute, indumentum densely tomentose, lanulose or lanose, ochreous, greyishwhite, dirty white or whitish, venation eucamptodromous or mixed parallelodromous-cladodromous. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, pedunculate or sessile, solitary or group of 2–3 third order syncephalia; third order syncephalium hemispherical to spherical, surrounded by leaf-like tertiary bracts, composed of 3–7 second order syncephalia; second order syncephalium spherical, surrounded by leaf like secondary bracts. Capitula 8–150, sessile, homogamous, discoid, fused for 1/4 of their length, interspersed by subinvolucral bracts, upper half leaf-like, lower half scarious, flat or concave. Involucre cylindrical or campanulate, phyllaries 2–4-seriate, brown, weakly imbricate, persistent, outer series shorter than inner series or subequal, apex acute, obtuse, rounded or sometimes truncated, glabrous or with apex densely lanate, glandular-punctate, flat or slightly concave; receptacle flat, areolate or fimbrillate. Florets 4–15 per capitulum, bisexual, fertile; corolla actinomorphic, deeply 5–(–6)-lobed, purple, pale lilac or white, glabrous, sparsely glandular-punctate, tube longer than limb, corolla lobes lanceolate, apex acute, glabrescent or pubescent towards apex, glandular; anthers calcarate, apical appendages triangular, acute, anther base strongly sagittate; style shaft glabrous throughout except for pubescence beneath style arms, style base glabrous, lacking a basal node, style arms with acute apex, pubescent outside throughout, with nectariferous disc. Cypselae cylindrical, prismatic or obconical, 10-ribbed, glabrous, glandular-punctate; carpopodium inconspicuous; pappus bi- or rarely uniseriate, paleaceous, whitish to stramineous, outer series shorter than inner series, sometimes vestigial, persistent, straight, apex acute to erose, inner series caducous, twisted, barbellate, apex narrowed.

Chromosome number: n = 19 (L. cipoensis, L. grazielae, L. mellobarretoi, L. sellovii, L. tomentosa), n = 18 (L. jolyanus) (Mansanares et al. 2002, 2007).

Lychnocephalus is distributed in campos rupestres in the southern and central portion of the Espinhaço Range, at Serra do Cipó and Diamantina Plateau respectively, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.