Velascoa

{{Short description|Species of flowering plants}}

{{Speciesbox

|image =

|image_caption =

|genus = Velascoa

|parent_authority = Calderón & Rzed.

|species = recondita

|authority = Calderón & Rzed.

}}

Velascoa is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Crossosomataceae. It only contains one known species, Velascoa recondita.{{cite web |title=Velascoa Calderón & Rzed. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:997069-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=14 March 2021 |language=en}}

It is native to a single location (as far as known at the time of discovery) in Landa de Matamoros Municipality in Querétaro in central Mexico.{{cite journal |last1=Calderon |first1=Graciela |last2=Rzedowski |first2=Jerzy |author-link2=Jerzy Rzedowski |title=Velascoa (Crossosomataceae), un género nuevo de la Sierra Madre Oriental de México |trans-title=Velascoa (Crossosomataceae), a new genus from the Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico |journal=Acta Botanica Mexicana |date=1997 |volume=39 |issue=39 |pages=53–59 |language=es |doi=10.21829/abm39.1997.776|doi-access=free }}

The genus name of Velascoa is in honour of José María Velasco Gómez (1840–1912), a Mexican painter, polymath and naturalist.{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition |trans-title=Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2018 | isbn=978-3-946292-26-5 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2018 |format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2018 | s2cid=187926901 |access-date=1 January 2021}} The Latin specific epithet of recondita means 'hidden', and was chosen to allude to being found in truly hidden locations, far from roads and villages, and for its habit of growing hidden in cracks amongst limestone boulders on inaccessible, vertical cliffs. Because of the harsh climate, it took botanists five years, after discovering the plant, to collect flowers and mature fruit of an individual to make a good holotype, so the new species could be properly described. It was first described and published in 1997 in volume 39 of the Acta Botanica Mexicana on page 54, by the Mexican husband-wife team of botanists Graciela Calderon de Rzedowski and Jerzy Rzedowski.