Scalesia pedunculata

Scalesia pedunculata is a flowering plant species in the family Asteraceae, growing to a slender tree (20m tall, DBH 20 cm), and found in dense stands on the humid windward coasts of the islands of Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, Santiago and Floreana in the Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos archipelago lies in the southeast trade wind zone, so that climate and weather are dominated by the moisture-bearing trade winds and the topography of the islands. In general, the windward sides of the islands have a much higher precipitation than the leeward sides. Scalesia pedunculata is regarded as vulnerable because of human encroachment, invasive introduced plant species such as Cedrela odorata and Psidium guajava, and grazing by introduced goats. Fires and cutting for fuel are also contributory problems, though the tree's wood is soft, with a large, pithy centre. The inflorescences are capitulae on long peduncles and composed of disc florets only with no ray florets. Charles Darwin first collected......read more on Wikipedia.