Buddleja megalocephala is a species endemic to Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

, in the Central Highlands, the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes

Sierra de los Cuchumatanes

The Sierra de los Cuchumatanes is the highest non-volcanic mountain range in Central America. Its elevations range from 500 m to over 3,800 m, and it covers a total area of ±16,350 km². With an area of 1,500 km² situated above 3,000 m, it is also the most extensive highland region in Central...

, and Mt. Tacana on the border with Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, where it grows in open areas associated with evergreen cloud forest at elevations of 2700 - 4,000 m. The species was first named and described by Smith

John Donnell Smith

Captain John Donnell Smith of Baltimore, Maryland was a biologist and taxonomist. He was also an officer in the Confederate army.He was a graduate of Yale in 1847, where he was a member of Skull and Bones....

 in 1897.

Description

B. megalocephala 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...

 tree 5 - 15 m high and a trunk < 65 cm in diameter at the base with brown fissured bark. The young branches are thick, quadrangular and densely 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...

, bearing lanceolate or elliptic-oblong

Leaf shape

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

 leaves 7 - 20 cm long by 2 - 6 cm wide on 1 - 2 cm petiole

Petiole (botany)

In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...

s, subcoriaceous, glabrescent

Glabrousness

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

 above, tomentose below. The 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...

 measures 6 - 20 cm by 8 - 10 cm, comprising globose heads in racemes, occasionally with two orders of branches; the heads 1.2 - 2 cm in diameter, each with 40 - 50 orange flowers; the corollas 4 - 5 mm long.

Cultivation

The tree is in commerce in the UK; suppliers can be found in the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...

Plantfinder http://apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/.