The name distephanus cass. has been applied to species of vernonieae with trinervate leaves, predomi- nantly yellowish fl owers (some are reddish or purplish), distinct basal stylar nodes, and sclerifi ed basal append- ages on the anther thecae. the genus occurs in asia, the western indian ocean, madagascar, and eastern africa (robinson & kahn 1986). although robinson & kahn (1986) recognised 26 species in , they indi- cated that others probably belonged to it as well, antici- pating the future addition of new species, and the most recent tribal treatment (keeley & robinson 2009: table 28.1) estimated 50 species of . neither of these treatments suggested that vernonia inhacensis g.v.pope should be included in the genus, but it has the defi ning morphological features for . robin- son & kahn (1986) stated that a distinct puck-like node at the base of the style is ‘almost totally restricted to and characteristic of among the paleotropical vernonieae’ and also pointed out the simple broad scle- rifi ed shield of the anther endothecium. both of these features, as well as the trinervate leaves are present on plants of v. inhacensis . we transfer v. inhacensis to the genus distephanus and distinguish it from d. divarica- tus (steetz) h.rob. & b.kahn and d. anisochaetoides (sond.) h. rob. & b. kahn . distephanus inhacensis (g.v.pope) boon & glen , comb. nov. g.v.pope in kew bull. 43: 280 (1988); g.v. pope in flora zambesiaca 6: 81 (1992). type: mozambique, xai-xai, praia sepulveda, barbosa & lemos 7843 (k—aluka image!, holo.; coi—aluka image!, lisc—aluka image!, iso.). [ distephanus sp. nov. boon: 584 (2010)]