Gesneria brachysepala Urb. & Ekman

Gesneria brachysepala Urban & Ekman

Gesneria brachysepala Urban & Ekman in Urban, Ark. Bot. 24A (4):34, 1932.

Plants acaulescent or suffruticose: stems woody at the base, to 10 cm tall, 6–9 mm in diameter, bark reddish-brown, villous, lenticels obscure, resin not evident; unbranched, internodes very short, leaf scars prominent.

Leaves alternate: petioles sulcate, 0.5–1.4 cm long, 2–4 mm wide, pilose with reddish or colorless trichomes; blades narrowly obovate, 5.6–13.9 cm long, 2.0–4.4 cm wide, subcoriaceous, base cuneate, margin crenate, subentire toward the base, apex rounded to acute, adaxial surface green, when young covered with broad-based trichomes, at maturity only bases remain to give a scabrous texture, abaxial surface green, with scattered appressed hairs especially along the prominent veins.

Inflorescences 1– to 4 (-many)-flowered: peduncles terete, 9.1–20.4 cm long, 1 mm in diameter, red, glabrescent; bracts 2, linear, about 2 mm long, less than 1 mm wide, red; pedicels terete, 0.9–2.3 cm long, less than 1 mm in diameter, reddish, glabrescent; floral tube turbinate, ca 4 mm long, 3 mm wide, reddish, glabrescent; calyx lobes 5, connate for 1 mm at the base above ovary, erect to patent, with open aestivation, each lobe triangular, 2.0–2.5 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide, reddish, glabrescent on the outside, inside reddish to green, glandular, veins not prominent; corolla tubular, ventricose at the middle, narrowed to both ends, 2.6–3.7 cm long, 6 mm wide at the base and apex,