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Scalesia is a genus in the family Asteraceae endemic to the Galapagos Islands. It contains fifteen species that grow as shrubs or trees. This is unusual, because tree species are uncommon in Asteraceae. The genus Scalesia resulted from a blunder by Arnott who named it in honour of "W. Scales Esq., Cawdor Castle, Elginshire" but discovered after publication that the name should have read 'Stables', after Scottish botanist, William Alexander Stables (1810–1890).
All of the species have soft, pithy wood. Scalesia species have been called "the Darwin's finches of the plant world" because they show a similarly dramatic pattern of adaptive radiation.
Radiate-headed scalesia · Scalesia aspera · Pinta Sunflower-tree · Heart-leafed scalesia · Scalesia crockeri · Daisy tree · Scalesia gordilloi · Heller's Scalesia · Scalesia incisa · Scalesia microcephala · Daisy tree · Scalesia retroflexa
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Scalesia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
