Mutisia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae (the daisy family), placed within the tribe Mutisieae and the order Asterales. The genus was described by Carl Linnaeus the Younger (L.f.) in 1781, in his Supplementum Plantarum. It comprises approximately sixty accepted species, all of them native to South America.
Members of Mutisia are climbing or scrambling shrubs, a habit unusual within Asteraceae. The leaves of many species are modified at the tip into tendrils that allow the plant to clamber over neighboring vegetation. The flower heads are typically large and showy, with ray florets in shades of pink, orange, red, or yellow, and are pollinated by hummingbirds in many species — making Mutisia one of the few genera in the daisy family with prominent ornithophilous pollination.
The genus is distributed along the full length of the Andes mountain chain, from Colombia and Ecuador in the north through Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, with additional populations in southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Chile and Argentina hold the greatest species richness and the largest number of occurrence records.
Mutisia was named in honor of José Celestino Mutis (1732–1808), the Spanish-born physician and botanist who spent most of his career in New Granada (present-day Colombia) and led the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada. Several species are cultivated as ornamentals in temperate gardens for their striking, daisy-like flower heads.
Etymology
Mutisia was named by Carl Linnaeus the Younger in honor of José Celestino Mutis (1732–1808), a Spanish physician and botanist who worked in New Granada (Colombia) and organized the Royal Botanical Expedition to that region.
Distribution
The genus ranges along the entire length of the Andes from Colombia and Ecuador south through Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, with outlying populations in southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The highest concentrations of species and occurrence records are found in Chile and Argentina.
Taxonomy Notes
Mutisia L.f. was published in Supplementum Plantarum (1781) and is the type genus of the tribe Mutisieae within Asteraceae. The GBIF backbone recognizes 119 descendant taxa. Some former Mutisia species have been transferred to allied genera, including Gongylolepis (e.g., Mutisia obovata → Gongylolepis martiana).
