Gesneria ventricosa Sw.

Gesneria ventricosa Swartz

Gesneria ventricosa Swartz, Prodr. 89, 1788.

Shrubs or small trees: stems woody to within 30 cm of apex, erect, to 3 m tall or more, up to 2 cm in diameter, bark rugose with long cracks, reddish to gray-grown, glabrous, resinous, lenticels whitish to brown, elongated; branches from the base or in upper axils, slightly flattened, subverrucose, to 1 cm wide at 8 cm below apex, green or red, to brown, glabrous, resinous, internodes about 0.1–3.0 cm long.

Leaves alternate or approximate: petioles sulcate, 0.5–4.5 cm long, 1–5 mm wide, green or reddish-brown, essentially glabrous, resinous;

blades ovate, elliptic to obovate, oblanceolate, occasionally falcate, 4.1–22.7 cm long, 1.8–7.8 cm wide, membranous to subcoriaceous, base acute to truncate or cuneate, margin denticulate to crenate, apex acute to acuminate to rounded, adaxial surface dark green, glabrous or with glandular trichomes, glossy, epidermis sometimes flaky upon drying, abaxial surface lighter green to reddish-brown, glabrous, resinous, veins prominent.

Inflorescences 1– to many-flowered, shorter than or exceeding the subtending leaves: peduncles terete, 2.0–15.9 cm long, 1–4 mm in diameter, green to reddish-brown, glabrous, resinous, with lenticels prominent, elongated, becoming obscure in age; bracts 2, linear-lanceolate, 0.6–1.5 cm long, green to reddish, glabrous, resinous; pedicels terete, jointed or not, curved, 0.5–2.3 cm long, 1–2 mm in diameter, green or reddish-brown; floral tube narrowly turbinate, 2–4 mm long, 3–4 mm wide at the apex, green or reddish, glabrous, resinous; calyx lobes 5, barely connate at base above ovary, each lobe terete and filiform, or narrowly triangular, sulcate, or flattened and keeled, 0.4–2.1 cm long, 0.5–3.0 mm wide at the base, both sides green or reddish and glabrous or glandular; corolla tubular, curved, gibbous above the base, narrowing slightly acropetally, becoming ventricose at or above the middle, 2.1–3.2 cm long, 3 mm wide at the base, 6–10 mm wide at the middle, narrowing to 6 mm wide at the oblique mouth, outside glabrous, resinous, inside yellow at the base, orange toward the middle, becoming red at the mouth, glabrous, limb 5-lobed, each lobe with the margin entire to erose or dentate, stipitate-glandular, upper lobes ovate to semiorbiculate, 2–6 mm long, connate for about 2 mm, erect, lateral lobes 2–5 mm long, erect to reflexed or patent, basal lobe 2–3 mm long, erect to reflexed; stamens 4, adnate for about 1 mm to the base of the corolla tube, exserted to 3 cm beyond corolla mouth, filaments linear, curved, 3.1–5.5 cm long, about 1 mm in diameter, yellow at the base, becoming orange-red toward the apex, glabrous or sparsely pilose, anthers globose or oblong, 1–2 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, red abaxially, glandular, resinous, coherent in two pairs by their apices, staminode to 9 mm long; ovary inferior, apex tomentose with whitish erect trichomes, disc annular, 5-lobed, yellow, puberulent with short glandular trichomes, style linear, curved, to 5.5 cm long, ca 1 mm in diameter, yellow or green at the base, orange or red acropetally, sparsely pilose to glabrescent, stigma stomatomorphic, papillate.

Capsule turbinate to nearly spherical or cyathi-form, 0.5–1.0 cm long, 4–6 mm wide, yellowish (from resin) to reddish-brown, glabrous, resinous, dehiscing into two or four valves, costae 5 or 10, prominent or becoming alate; seeds rhombic or fusiform, about 1 mm long, reddish-brown, or dark red, surface cells raised (Figure 19i).

Gesneria ventricosa là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Tai voi. Loài này được Sw. mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1788.