Burmeistera microphylla Donn. Sm.

Burmeistera microphylla Donn. Smith, Bot. Gaz. 25: 146. 1898
tCentropogon scandens Planch. & Oerst. Vidensk. Meddel. 1857: 157. 1857. (Typ« from western
Costa Rica.) Centropogon aurobarbatus F. E. Wimmer. Repert. Sp. Nov. 19: 251. 1924. (Brade 2315, Berlin.) Burmeistera aurobarbata F. E. Wimmer, Repcrt. Sp. Nov. 30: 35. 1932.
Epiphytic, entirely glabrous, the stems often numerous and pendent, woody but rather soft, fistulous, green or straw-colored, or mahogany-red on the young growth (according to Austin Smith), (0.3) 0.9-1.5 m. long, often 6 mm. in diameter at base; leaves 20-30 (35) the upper little-reduced and bearing flowers in the axils, the blades very variable in size and .shape, thick and stiff, brittle and shining when fresh (according to Austin Smith), coriaceous when dry, flat or the margins somewhat revolute, (0.6) 2.5-4.0 cm. wide by (1.3) 6-10 cm. long, 2-3 times as long as broad, much darker green above than beneath (when dry), varying from elliptic to lanceolate, ovate or obovate, the base somewhat rounded and abruixly contracted to a stout petiole 0.5-1.3 cm. long, the apex blunt, acute, or abruptly or gradually narrowed lo an acuminate tip which may be as much as 2.5 cm. long and only I.O nun. wide, the margins entire or subentire but usually with irregularly spaced callosities, these sometimes terminating low teeth, the veins often strongly impressed on the upper surface when dry; inflorescence fcw-22 cm. long, often interrupted by sterile nodes, loosely few-15-flowcred; pedicels mahogany red fnccording to Austin Smith), spreading, in fruit often standing stiffly at righl-anKlcs lo the stem or alightly dcflexed, up to I mm. in diameter, in fruit (15) 25-40 (55) mm. long, smooth and glal>rous;flciwer odorless (according to Austin Smith), (2.5) 3-4 cm. long, including hypntithiuin; corolla glabrous, in color "russet to dull reddish, inside tube cream yellow," "inner side of lobes creamy yellow," "pale green tinged with russet red," the tube (12) 15-20 mm. long, cylindric, the lobes lanceolate or broadly linear, the two upper lobes 2-3 mm. wide by 8-11 mm. long, the lower lobes similar, 5-S mm. long, the lowest lobe about 4 mm. long; filament-tube 18-27 mm long, glabrous, the filaments adherent to the corolla-tube at very base; anther-tube (3.0) 4.0-5.5 mm. long, the two shorter anthers with a conspicuous tuft of soft yellow or whitish hairs at apex, the three larger naked at apices, but with broad longitudinal Unes of golden-yellow hairs, these occasionally continuing to the upper part of the filament-tube; hiT^anthium in anthesis campanulate or obconic, narrowed and often attenuate at base; fruit an ellipsoid, ovoid, or subglobose, little-inflated berry, "somewhat ridged, snow-white, with pale green sepals adhering, on cream-yellow pedicels" (Austin Smith), 5-7 mm. in diameter by 6-9 mm. long, the base rounded but the summit of the pedicel dilated; calyx-lobes linear or essentially so, blunt at tip, slightly widened at base, entire or obscurely caUose-denticulate, about 1 nmi. wide by (2) 7-15 mm. long; seeds oblong, flattened, with rounded endsand edges, about 1.3 mm. long.
Type locality: La Palma, Costa Rica, at an elevation of 1520 m., C. Werckle in 1897 (US!).
Distribution: Forests of the mountains of Costa Rica, at elevations of 1200-2400 m.