Lepidaploa purpurata (Gleason) H. Rob.

Vernonia purpurata Gleason, Bull. Torrey Club 40: 322. 1913
Stems shrubby, 2-2.5 m. tall, thinly tomentose below, becoming densely so in the inflorescence; leaf -blades heavy, rigid, coriaceous, elliptic-oblong, 5-7 cm. long, 2-3 cm. wide, obtuse or subacute, entire or irregularly repand, obtuse or rounded at base, strongly rugose, but shining and essentially glabrous above, minutely puberulent on the veins beneath; petioles 2-4 mm. long; inflorescence small, irregular, composed of several short leafy cymes bearing each 4-10 heads; bracteal leaves narrowly oblong or oblong-linear, not present below many heads; heads secund, or aggregated at the tips of the cymes, 8-flowered; involucre narrowly cylindric, 6 mm. high; scales closely imbricate, appressed, sharply acute, thinly strigose, the outer ovate-triangular, the inner microscopically spinulose-serrulate, purple-brown at the exposed tip; pappus pale yellow-brown, the bristles 7 mm. long, the scales narrowly linear, 1.21.4mm. long.
Type locality: Jiquarito mountain, Sierra Maestro, Oriente, Cuba. Distribution: Eastern Cuba.*