Buddleja cardenasii is a species endemic only to the region of Cochabamba

Cochabamba

Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the fourth largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people...

 in Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

 at an altitude of around 3,000 m. The species was first described and named by Standley

Paul Carpenter Standley

Paul Carpenter Standley was an American botanist.Standley was born in Avalon, Missouri...

 in 1935.

Description

B. cardenasii 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 3 – 4 m high, with branches which are subquadrangular and tomentose

Tomentose

Tomentose is a term used to describe plant hairs that are flattened and matted, forming a woolly coating known as tomentum. Often the hairs are silver or gray-colored...

. The subcoriaceous leaves are elliptic, lanceolate or ovate

Leaf shape

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

, 10 – 12 cm long by 8 cm wide, with a glabrescent

Glabrousness

Glabrousness is the technical term for an anatomically atypical lack of hair, down, or similar structures...

 and rugose

Rugose

Rugose means "wrinkled". It may refer to:*Idiosoma nigrum, more commonly, a black rugose trapdoor spider*Rugosa, an extinct order of coral, whose rugose shape earned it the name...

 upper surface. The orange inflorescences are paniculate 7 – 25 cm long by 7 – 20 cm wide, comprising cymes each with 6 - 9 flowers; the corollas are 3 - 3.5 mm long.

The species is very similar to B. soratae

Buddleja soratae

Buddleja soratae is a rare species endemic to one small area of Bolivia around Sorata, growing along forest edges at altitudes of 2,700 - 3,200 m; it was first described and named by Kraenzlin in 1913. -Description:...

; further research may well prove them conspecific.