Gesneria haitiensis L. E. Skog

Gesneria haitiensis L. Skog

Gesneria haitiensis L. Skog, Baileya 18:114, 1972.

Shrubs: stems woody, erect or contorted at the base to 1.3 m tall, bark brown to gray at maturity, pith reddish; young branchlets divaricate, extending out from the primary branches for 3–9 cm, 1–4 mm in diameter, wider toward the apices, glabrous, resinous, lenticels elongated.

Leaves alternate, crowded at the apices of the branches, resinous: petioles sulcate from a swollen base, 2–6 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, green to brown, glandular and glabrous, except for sparse rows of hairs in the sulcus; blades elliptic to obovate, 2.8–5.2 cm long, 1.5–2.7 cm wide, coriaceous, base cuneate, margin entire, apex rounded to acute, adaxial surface dark green, nitid, glabrous, except for sparse rows of hairs along the immersed midvein, abaxial surface lighter green, glabrous, glandular along the prominent midvein.

Inflorescences from the axils of the crowded leaves, 1-flowered, length equaling the subtending leaves: peduncles very short, bearing 2 lanceolate bracts, 1.5 mm long, reddish-brown, glandular; pedicels terete, 0.8–1.2 cm long, elongating in fruit, ca 1 mm in diameter; floral tube turbinate, 1.5–2 mm long, ca 2 mm wide, reddish-brown, glabrous, glandular-scaly; calyx erect, 5-lobed, the lobes connate for less than 1 mm, aestivation valvate, each lobe sulcate, lanceolate-linear, 5–9 mm long, ca 1 mm broad, apex acuminate, margin entire, exterior surface reddish-brown, glabrous, glandular-scaly, interior surface lighter red, glabrous; corolla tube cylindric, slightly curved from the gibbous base, 0.9–1.2 cm long, 4–6 mm wide at the base, 3–4 mm wide at the middle and 2–3 mm wide at the mouth, outer surface rosy-pink, glabrous, but slightly glandular, interior surface lighter pink, glabrous, limb patent, 1.2–1.8 cm across, 5-lobed, each lobe orbiculate, flat, ca 7 mm long, ca 8 mm broad, rosy-pink, glabrous, margin erose to scalloped, glandular; stamens 4, sub-exserted, filaments adnate to the base of the corolla for less than 1 mm, linear, curved, ca 9 mm long, ca 1 mm in diameter, white, glabrous except for a group of hairs at the bend 2 mm above the base of the filament, anthers oblong, ca 1 mm long, coherent in 2 pairs, staminode 4 mm long, lacking mature anther; ovary inferior, apex reddish, pubescent disc sinuate-annular, thickened, ca 2 mm across, glabrous, style linear, ca 7 mm long, reddish, pilose, stigma stomatomorphic, and pilose.

Capsule broadly turbinate or ovoid, 4–6 mm long, 6–7 mm in diameter, gray-brown, glabrous, costae 10, prominent; seeds fusiform, twisted, ca 1 mm long, reddish-brown.

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Between Léon and Fond Cochon, Haiti, L. Skog, T. Talpey & D. Pfister 1616 (BH, holotype; BM, BR, C, E, F, G, GH, IJ, L, M, MO, NY, P, S, US (Figure 35a), W, Z, isotypes).

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY.—Gesneria haitiensis is known only from Département du Sud in western Haiti (Figure 27), where it grows on limestone cliffs overhanging rivers at an elevation of ca 330 m. This species was collected in flower in July. Although in cultivation at Cornell University (G-1366), the plants have not flowered.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—HAITI. DÉPARTMENT DU SUD: along banks of dry Rivière Voldrogue at Bras-Sec [Bois-Sec] between Léon and Fond Cochon, Massif de la Hotte, about 15 miles SE of Jérémie, 1100 ft, 24 July 1970, L. Skog, T. Talpey & D. Pfister 1616 (BH, holotype: BM, BR, C, E, F, G, GH, IJ, L, M, MO, NY, P, S, US, W, Z, isotypes).

Gesneria haitiensis là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Tai voi. Loài này được L.E.Skog mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1971.