Alonsoa

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Alonsoa meridionalis (8435406805).jpg

| image_caption = Alonsoa meridionalis

| taxon = Alonsoa

| authority = Ruiz & Pav.

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = {{center|See text}}

}}

Alonsoa (mask flower) is a genus of 12 species of flowering plants in the family Scrophulariaceae. The genus includes both herbaceous and shrubby species.

The genus is native to Central and western South America, from south Mexico to Peru and Chile. At least two species are native to South Africa.{{Cite journal| authorlink = Steiner, Kim E.| title = A Second Species of the Amphi-Atlantic Genus Alonsoa (Scrophulariaceae) in South Africa | journal = Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden | volume = 76 | issue = 4 | pages = 1152–1159 | year = 1989 | jstor = 2399701 | doi=10.2307/2399701

| last1 = Steiner | first1 = Kim E. }} Alonsoas grow to around 30–100 cm tall, and have small, broadly oval, serrated leaves. The red, orange, yellow, white or occasionally blue flowers are borne on a loose terminal raceme.

The alonsoa is named after Zenón de Alonso Acosta, a Spanish official in Bogota, Colombia.H. Ruiz López & J.A. Pavón, Systema Vegetabilium Florae Peruvianae et Chilensis 150–152, 1798Mark A. Burkholder, Biographical Dictionary of Councilors of the Indies, 1717-1808, 1986, p.. 5-6