Dendroviguiera


Dendroviguiera is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family. Its native range stretches from Mexico into Central America. Formerly part of the Viguiera genus, until a DNA study in 2011 separated out all the shrub/tree species of the Viguiera genus.

Description

Dendroviguiera species generally are shrubs and trees with phyllaries with oblong, indurated bases and short, triangular herbaceous apices. The pappus has awns which are usually broad, greater than mm across. The abaxial leaf surfaces usually not densely pubescent.

Taxonomy

Originally the species of Viguiera were placed in Viguiera ser. Maculatae in 1918.
Molecular phylogenetic studies by Schilling in 1991, suggested that there is an unexpectedly close relationship between Iostephane and Dendroviguiera.
Botanists Edward E. Schilling and José Luis Panero used molecular sequences of nuclear ITS, ETS, and cpDNA to conclude that the genus Viguiera, did not constitute a monophyletic group. Among their conclusions they proposed to reclassify the genus, dividing and relocating its species in at least eleven genera: Aldama, Bahiopsis, Calanticaria, Davilanthus, Dendroviguiera, Gonzalezia, Heliomeris, Heiseria, Hymenostephium, Sidneya, and Viguiera.
The genus Dendroviguiera was first described and published in Bot. J. Linn. Soc. vol.167 on page 325 in 2011 by. After using plastid DNA sequence data for internal transcribed spacer and partial external transcribed spacer studies,
The genus name of Dendroviguiera is in honour of Louis Guillaume Alexandre Viguier, who was a French doctor and botanist, preceded by the Greek words dendron meaning 'tree'.
GRIN only class it as a possible synonym of Viguiera and list no species.

Species

As accepted by Kew, and WFO;Dendroviguiera adenophylla Dendroviguiera eriophora Dendroviguiera guerrerana Dendroviguiera insignis Dendroviguiera mirandae Dendroviguiera neocronquistii Dendroviguiera oaxacana Dendroviguiera pringlei Dendroviguiera puruana Dendroviguiera quinqueradiata Dendroviguiera sharpii Dendroviguiera sphaerocephala Dendroviguiera splendens
  • ''Dendroviguiera sylvatica''

Distribution

Most of the species in the genus are found in Mexico, Only one species, Dendroviguiera sylvatica is only found in Costa Rica and Panama.

Habitat

They are normally found in tropical deciduous forests.
Like Dendroviguiera splendens which is found within temperate forests, oak forests and subtropical dry shrublands and at altitudes of above sea level.

Endangered

Found in Morelos, State of Mexico, Dendroviguiera mirandae on IUCN RED list as "least concern".
While Dendroviguiera splendens has been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2021 and was listed as vulnerable, due to threats from livestock farming & ranching and logging & wood harvesting, damaging the local habitats.
While Dendroviguiera puruana, Dendroviguiera quinqueradiata and Dendroviguiera sphaerocephala have all been assessed as near threatened (NT) for similar reasons.

Uses

Secondary metabolites such as germacrolides, heliangolides and furanoheliangolides and tetracyclic diterpenes have been characterized from various Dendroviguiera species.
Sesquiterpene lactones 52 and 96, were isolated from Dendroviguiera sylvatica have found to inhibited the nitric oxide production and phagocytosis of macrophages.
They and millerenolide and thieleanin have also been used on the growth of melanoma tumors in mice.