Gesneria harrisii Urb.

Gesneria harrisii Urban

Gesneria harrisii Urban, Symb. Ant. 5:497, 1908.

Large shrubs or small trees: stems woody, erect, to 3 m tall, 4 cm in diameter at base, bark sub-rugose brown to gray, glabrous, very resinous, lenticels elongated; branches scattered, terete, ca 4 mm in diameter at 10 cm below apex, green to brown, glabrous, resinous, internodes 0.2–8.7 cm long, leaf scars prominent.

Leaves alternate, well separated or crowded toward branch apices: petioles slender, sulcate, 7–15 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, green to brown, glabrous, glandular-resinous; blades elliptic or oblong, rarely obovate, 3.4–11.0 cm long, 1.3–4.4 cm wide, coriaceous, rigid, base acute, margin entire below, crenate or dentate above, apex acute, adaxial surface plane, green, glabrous, somewhat resinous, veins impressed, abaxial surface lighter green or reddish-brown, glabrous, densely glandular-resinous, veins prominent.

Inflorescences of single flowers, shorter than or equaling the subtending leaves: peduncles (including pedicel) terete, alate toward apex, 2–5 cm long, ca 1 mm in diameter, green to brown, glabrous, resinous; bracts obsolete; floral tube turbinate or obconic, 2–3 mm long, 2–3 mm wide at apex, green to brown, glabrous, resinous, costate; calyx 5-lobed, lobes connate for less than 1 mm, filiform to narrowly lanceolate, erect, becoming incurved in fruit, 9–16 mm long, ca 1 mm wide at base, outside keeled, green, glabrous and resinous, inside sulcate, green, glabrous, resinous; corolla tube cylindric, wider above middle, 12–17 mm long, ca 4.5 mm wide at throat, outside sulfur yellow, glabrous, resinous, inside yellow-green, glabrous, limb bilabiate, glabrous, resinous, margin subentire to denticulate, stipitate-glandular, upper lobes erect, semiorbiculate, notched, lateral lobes reflexed, rotund, 1.5–2.0 mm long, ca 1.5 mm wide, basal lobe reflexed, triangular, ca 2 mm long and wide, notched; mouth not oblique; stamens 4, staminode 5 mm long, all adnate to base of corolla for less than 1 mm, exserted to length of upper lobes of corolla, filaments curved, 12–17 mm long, ca 0.5 mm wide at base, narrower above, yellow-green, glabrous, anthers oblong, ca 1 mm long, 0.5 mm wide, coherent in 2 pairs or free; ovary inferior, apex pilose, disc short, annular, style curved, 8–16 mm long, yellow-green, darker at base, glabrous, stigma thicker than style, bilobed, papillate.

Capsule turbinate to broadly turbinate, dehiscing from the apex, 4–5 mm long, 5–6 mm wide at apex, gray or brown, glabrous, resinous, costae 5, subalate; seeds fusiform, striate, twisted, ca 1 mm long, ca 0.3 mm wide, reddish or brown.

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Glasgow, near Troy, Jamaica, W. Harris 8670 (F, lectotype (Figure 35b); BM, UCWI, isolectotypes).

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY.—Gesneria harrisii is endemic to central Jamaica (Figure 36), where it grows on shaded limestone rocks and cliffs from ca 400–850 m elevation. This species appears to be in flower all during the year.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—JAMAICA. PARISH OF TRELAWNY: near Troy, 1500 ft, 22 November 1905, W. Harris 9066 (BM, F, NY, UCWI). PARISH OF MANCHESTER: cliff, Troy to Oxford, Cockpit Country, 13–18 September 1906, N. Britton 677 (F, NY, US); vicinity of Auchtembeddie, 1750 ft, 1 December 1962, G. Proctor 22974 (BM, IJ); near Auchtembeddie, ca 1250 ft, 5 November 1964, G. Proctor 25623 (IJ); near Auchtembeddie, 1250 ft, 15 August 1970, L. Skog & G. Proctor 1636 (BH, US); N of Mandeville, near Auchtembeddie, 1750 ft, 5 November 1964, T. Talpey 19 (BH); Glasgow, near Troy, 1400 ft, 20 April 1904, W. Harris 8670 (F, lectotype of Gesneria harrisii Urban; BM, UCWI, isolectotypes); Norway district, 1.5 mi due SW of Craig hill P.O., ca 2300 ft, 30 March 1964, G. Proctor 24755 (BM, IJ, NY, U); Cockpit Country, ca 2 mi SW of Craig head, ca 2000 ft, 20 June 1959, G. Webster, J. Ellis & K. Miller 8416 (BM, G, IJ, S). PARISH OF ST. ANN: Douglas Castle district, ca 2300 ft, 28 March 1965, G. Proctor 26320 (IJ). PARISH OF CLARENDON: Peckham Woods, 2500 ft, 27 September 1912, W. Harris 11184 (BM, F, NY, US), 27 December 1917, W. Harris 12782 (F, GH, K, MO, NY, UCWI, US), 7 January 1955, G. Proctor 9770 (A, IJ, NY); Peckham Woods, north of Frankfield, 2500 ft, 23 December 1955, W. Steam 4 (A, BH, BM, K). LOCALITY UNKNOWN: Jamaica, 1844, W. Purdie sn (K, NY).

Gesneria harrisii là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Tai voi. Loài này được Urb. mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1908.