Psammisia pinnata Pedraza

Terrestrial or epiphyte shrubs, more or less erect or with arching branches, 1.5 m tall; stems brown-black, ridged or subterete, with soft and small grooves twisting near nodes, glabrous, pith drying dark purple, most terminal branches usually hollow, and, at least in one occasion, inhabited by ants; twigs with a few deep ridges running lengthwise and often twisting near nodes, glabrous. Axillary buds compressed; prophylls 2, inconspicuous, valvate, ovate, 1.5–2 mm long, margin ciliolate, the hairs unicellular and eglandular (all indumentum composed of this type of hairs except when indicated), apex acute, glabrous. Leaves alternate; petiole subterete, thick and basally pulvinate, 1–2.8 cm long, glabrous; lamina subcoriaceous to chartaceous, elliptic to oblong, sometimes slightly asymmetrical (more evident in large leaves), (19–)23–45 × (5–)8.7–22 cm, base cuneate to sometimes nearly truncate, margin entire and eciliate except for the very young leaves with a handful of caducous apical hairs, apex (long or short) acuminate, glabrate with caducous hairs on both sides, adaxial hairs inconspicuous (< 0.5 mm long), abaxial hairs often affixed atop of what seem to be minute laminar glands; laminar glands only evident abaxially, drying black, sparse, small, and round; venation pinnate, with up to 5 visible orders in dry specimens, 8–11 secondaries per side, these alternate (rarely subopposite), evenly dispersed along the lamina, ascending, brochidodromous, intersecondaries present toward midsection, midrib and secondaries adaxially impressed and abaxially raised, tertiaries well marked (in mature leaves), parallel among themselves and inserted at ca. 80–90° with respect to midrib. Inflorescence an axillary, solitary, 5–11-flowered raceme, often cauliflorous; inflorescence bracts caducous, chartaceous, ovate, 1.2–1.8 × 1.7–3 mm, margin entire and eciliate, apex obtuse, glabrous on both sides, venation obscure; rachis pink or magenta (fuchsia), 9–16 mm long, glabrous; floral bract 1, persistent, chartaceous, white, ovate, 1–3 × 1.5–2.5 mm, margin entire and eciliate, apex obtuse to acute, glabrous on both sides, venation obscure; pedicel pink or magenta (fuchsia), articulated with calyx, 9–23 mm long, glabrous; bracteoles 2, persistent, medially to distally inserted, opposite, chartaceous, white, ovate, 1.3–1.6 × 1–1.2 mm, margin entire and eciliate and with one or two pairs of stout masses of fimbria, apparently glandular in nature, easily breakable, apex acute, glabrous on both sides, venation obscure. Flowers 5-merous, actinomorphic, diplostemonous. Calyx pink or magenta, the lobes whitish with black marginal glands, cupuliform and sometimes slightly flaring out apically (urceolate in vivo), 6–8.5 mm long, glabrous; tube cupuliform, terete, ca. 3.5 mm long; limb spreading when dry (erect in vivo), 3–4 mm long; lobes ovate, 1–1.8 × 2–3.5 mm long, glandular margin on each side of the lobe (excluding the apex) sometimes breaking into stout segments of fusing glandular fimbria (sensu Luteyn 1983), margin eciliate, apex acute; sinuses obtuse (U-shaped); aestivation unknown. Corolla white (in bud basally pink and distally white), fleshy, not bistratose, conic, terete, 17–22 mm long, ca. 4.5 mm diam., ca. 2.5 mm wide at throat, glabrous within and without; lobes ovate, 1.2–1.3 × 1.4–1.5 mm, apex acute; aestivation valvate. Stamens 10, equal (though one cycle very slightly shorter than the other by < 0.5 mm), 7–9 mm long, included, not adherent to corolla; filaments connate in basal 0.3–1.5 mm, 3–4.7 mm long, glabrous, marginally glabrous or glabrate, the hairs inconspicuous, ca. 0.1 mm long; anthers 7–8 mm long, connective spurless; thecae 4.5–5 mm long, prognathous, without basal appendage, papillate; tubules 2, free, straight, basally similar in width to thecae, 2.2–3 mm long, smooth, dehiscing by introrse slits almost as long as the tubules, 2.2–2.7 mm long. Ovary 5-locular; nectary not pulvinate, top of ovary flat or concave; style 17–20 mm long, included; stigma punctiform. Berry ca. 12 mm diam., turning green with age, the lobes yellowish and converging.