Baccharis bicolor (Joch. Müll.) G. Heiden 2012

Heiden, Gustavo & Pirani, José Rubens, 2012, A synopsis and notes for Baccharis subgen. Tarchonanthoides (Asteraceae: Astereae), Phytotaxa 60 (1), pp. 41-49 : 45

12. Baccharis bicolor (Joch. Müll.) G. Heiden , comb. et stat. nov.

Basionym: Baccharis coridifolia subsp. bicolor Müller (2006: 276) . — Type: BOLIVIA. Cochabamba: Prov. Ayopaya, Independencia 22 km hacia Kami , em dirección S, 3670 m, 29 November 1981, ♂ & ♀, S . Beck 7467 (holotype JE (00005245) photo!; isotypes G, LPB, SI! (004229), US! (00901686), USZ) .

Müller (2006) applied the infraspecific rank of subspecies to “taxa that are morphologically (nearly) always well separated and have distinct or scarcely overlapping distributions” and used varieties for “taxa in which the character states show frequent overlap and which are sympatric”. In the current checklist, any taxon that can be distinguished from the others by morphological characters is considered a species and therefore a new combination and status is proposed. As pointed out by Müller (2006), B. bicolor can be distinguished from B. coridifolia by, amongst others, leaves and shoots with a persistent indumentum of filiform hairs and a pappus of female florets with less than 60 bristles. In contrast, B. coridifolia has longer and wider leaves and shoots without filiform hairs or with these only present on very young structures and then caduceus. Baccharis coridifolia has female florets with a pappus of more than 80 bristles. Both species do not overlap in geographic distribution, since B. bicolor is restricted to the Yungas of northeastern Bolivia (elevations between 2500-3500 m in the Departments of Cochabamba and La Paz) while B. coridifolia is widespread in southern South America, occurring from southwestern Bolivia (elevations between 1200-2700 m in the Departments of Chuquisaca, Tarija and Santa Cruz) to southeastern Brazil, south to central and eastern Argentina.