Abstract
A recent molecular phylogenetic analysis (Schilling & Panero 2011) proposed to narrow the concept of the paraphyletic genus Viguiera Kunth (1818: 176; Asteraceae: Heliantheae) to embrace only the type, V. dentata (Cavanilles 1794: 10) Sprengel (1826: 615). Robinson (1977) emphasized the peculiarities of Viguiera dentata as the “distinctive and unique” presence of hairs on the filaments of the anther, the disk corollas throat less than twice as long as the lobes and densely scabrous below, a combination of features that differs from most member of the genus. During taxonomic studies of Viguiera and related genera, it was discovered that V. dentata has never been typified. The basionym, Helianthus dentatus, was described by Antonio José Cavanilles in Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum based on plants grown in the Real Jardín Botánico from seed sent by Martín Sessé from Mexico (Blanco 2000). Previous workers including Blake (1918) and Robinson (1977) have accepted the plate in Cavanilles as the type for Helianthus dentatus Cav.