Gesneria alpina (Urb.) Urb.

Gesneria alpina (Urban) Urban

Gesneria alpina (Urban) Urban, Symb. Ant. 5:498, 1908.—Adams, Fl. Pl. Jamaica 681, 1972.

Gesneria calycosa var. alpina Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:376, 1901.

Shrubs: stems woody, spreading, bark rugose, gray-brown, to 6 m tall, verrucose, lenticels elongated; branches 5 mm in diameter at 30 cm from the apex, lower branches to 6.1 m long (fide Stearn), nodes enlarged, leaf scars prominent.

Leaves alternate or approximate: petioles sulcate, 0.7–1.5 cm long, 1–2 mm wide, green to brown, glabrous, verrucose to smooth; blades ovate to obovate, occasionally falcate, 6.0–11.4 cm long, 3.5–4.7 cm wide, membranous, base acute or rounded, margin serrate to dentate, apex acuminate, adaxial surface dark green, glabrous, abaxial surface lighter green, glabrous, veins prominent, verrucose.

Inflorescence 1-flowered, in leaf axils near branch apices: peduncles terete, 1.0–1.6 cm long, 1–2 mm in diameter, glabrous, resinous; bracts 2, linear, 4 mm long, less than 1 mm wide, brownish, resinous; pedicels 3.1–3.9 cm long, 1–2 mm in diameter, wider toward the apex, green, glabrous; floral tube turbinate, ca 4 mm long, 7 mm in diameter, glabrous, resinous; calyx lobes 5, connate for less than 1 mm at base, each lobe sulcate at base, 1.5–1.9 cm long, 2–3 mm wide at the base, outside dark green, glabrous, resinous, inside pilose, resinous; corolla campanulate, tube 1.5–2.5 cm long, 6 mm wide at the base, expanding to ca 2 cm wide at mouth, both sides yellow, glabrous, resinous, limb 5-lobed, each lobe glandular, upper lobes ca 8 mm long, 6 mm wide, margin dentate, lateral and basal lobes ca 8 mm long, 9 mm wide, margin subentire; stamens 4, shortly adnate to corolla base, not exserted, filaments linear, ca 16 mm long, pale yellow, glabrous, glandular, anthers oblong, 2 mm long, 1 mm wide, red or brown on back, glandular; ovary inferior, disc annular, 4 mm long, yellow, puberulent with glandular trichomes, style ca 2.3 cm long, exserted, green, puberulous, glandular, stigma stomatomorphic.

Capsule turbinate, dehiscing into four valves, ca 1.0 cm long, 8 mm wide, green to gray, glabrous, costae 5; seeds fusiform, twisted, ca 1 mm long, red to brown (Figure 19m).

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Near Blue Mountain Peak, Jamaica, W. Harris 7547 (BM, lectotype, Figure 71a; GH, K, NY, UCWI, isolectotypes).

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY.—Gesneria alpina is known only from the parishes of St. Andrew and St. Thomas in eastern Jamaica (Figure 72) at high elevations of 1100–2200 m. Its habitat is usually limestone soil in deeply shaded, wet, mountain forests. Gesneria alpina appears to flower only during the winter months, November to March. The corolla could accommodate the heads of the larger flower-feeding bats in Jamaica, Brachyphylla pumila and Phyllonycteris aphylla, and probably the heads of smaller bats as well, all of which may be pollinators.

SEPCIMENS EXAMINED.—JAMAICA. PARISH OF ST. ANDREW: summit cone of John Crow Peak, Blue Mountains, 5500–5700 ft, 24 November 1954, G. Proctor 9526 (IJ); Vicinity of Cinchona, New Haven Gap, 2–10 September 1906, N. Britton 150 (NY); Cinchona, Blue Mountains, leeward slopes, 9 February 1915, J. Harris & J. Lawrence C15129 (US); Cinchona, Blue Mountains, windward slopes, 2 March 1915, J. Harris & J. Lawrence C15324 (NY); Cinchona, Blue Mountains, leeward slopes, 9 March, 1915, J. Harris & J. Lawrence C15394 (US) Cinchona, Blue Mountains, windward slopes, 13 March 1915, J. Harris & J. Lawrence C15470 (F); Blue Mts., near Abbey Green, 3500 ft, A. Rehder sn (A). PARISH OF ST. THOMAS: above Portland Gap, 5800 ft, 18