Buddleja blattaria is a small shrub endemic to the regions of Piura

Piura

Piura is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. The population is 377,496.It was here that Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro founded the third Spanish city in South America and first in Peru, San Miguel de Piura, in July 1532...

 and Cajamarca

Cajamarca

Cajamarca may refer to:Colombia*Cajamarca, Tolima a town and municipality in Tolima DepartmentPeru* Cajamarca, city in Peru.* Cajamarca District, district in the Cajamarca province.* Cajamarca Province, province in the Cajamarca region....

 in northern Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

. The species was first described and named by J. F. Macbride in 1934.

Description

B. blattaria is a dioecious

Dioecious

Dioecy is the property of a group of biological organisms that have males and females, but not members that have organs of both sexes at the same time. I.e., those whose individual members can usually produce only one type of gamete; each individual organism is thus distinctly female or male...

 shrub, < 1 m tall, with brown fissured bark. The young branches are quadrangular

Quadrangle

Quadrangle may refer to :*Quadrangle , a courtyard surrounded by a building or several buildings.*The Quadrangle, a group of five museums in Springfield, Massachusetts, including the United States' first planetarium and the Dr...

 and covered with thick tomentum

Tomentum

Tomentum may refer to the following:*In botany, a covering of closely matted or fine hairs on plant leaves. *A network of minute blood vessels in the brain.* Tomentum in zoology are a short, soft pubescence...

. The leaves are sessile

Sessility (botany)

In botany, sessility is a characteristic of plants whose flowers or leaves are borne directly from the stem or peduncle, and thus lack a petiole or pedicel...

 elliptic or oblong-elliptic

Leaf shape

In botany, leaf shape is characterised with the following terms :* Acicular : Slender and pointed, needle-like* Acuminate : Tapering to a long point...

, 4 – 10 cm long by 1.5 – 3 cm wide, lanose on both surfaces. The white or cream inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 is 3 – 8 cm long, comprising sessile flowers borne on one terminal and 1 - 3 pairs of globose heads below, in the axils of small leaves, each head 1 - 2  cm diameter with 20 - 40 flowers, the corolla  5  mm long.

The species is very similar to B. jamesonii

Buddleja jamesonii

Buddleja jamesonii is a species endemic to southern Ecuador, where it grows in moist, protected ravines and borders of tussocks at elevations of 3,000 - 4,000  m. The species, first named and described by Bentham in 1846, is now threatened by habitat loss.-Description:B. jamesonii is a...

 found to the north in southern Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 but differs from the latter in having larger leaves with crenate margins, and lacks the foliose axillary branches. B. jamesonii is also trioecious.