Gesneria gloxinioides (Griseb.) Urb.

Gesneria gloxinioides (Grisebach) Urban

Gesneria gloxinioides (Grisebach) Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:377, 1901—Morton in Leon & Alain, Fl. de Cuba 4:460, 1957. Conradia gloxinioides Grisebach, Cat. PI. Cub. 200, 1866. Pentarhaphia gloxinioides (Grisebach) Gómez de la Maza, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 23:279, 1894.

Shrubs: stems woody, erect, to 1 m tall (fide Morton), 6 mm in diameter at 3 cm from the apex, lenticels hidden, only slightly resinous at apex, pith reddish; branches few, not verrucose, internodes very short, gray-brown when dried, covered with glandular and eglandular articulate, pallid tomentum, nodes slightly swollen.

Leaves alternate, crowded at branch apices: petioles swollen at base, slightly sulcate, 0.8–1.0 cm long, 1 mm wide, green, pilose with glandular and eglandular trichomes; blades obovate, 8.5–15.0 cm long, 3.5–5.8 cm wide, membranous, base oblique, cuneate to acute, margin crenate, ciliate with numerous erect glandular trichomes, apex acute, adaxial surface dark green, densely pilose with glandular and eglandular trichomes, abaxial surface lighter green, densely pilose with glandular and eglandular trichomes, the pilosity becoming more dense at the prominent veins.

Inflorescences in the axils of young leaves, 2– to 4-flowered: peduncles terete, 1.0–1.2 cm long, 1.5 mm in diameter, densely pilose; bracts 2–4, linear to lanceolate, 0.7–1.3 cm long, 0.5–3.0 mm wide, base cuneate, margin entire to slightly crenate, ciliate-glandular, apex acute, pilose with glandular and eglandular trichomes; pedicels terete, 1.2–1.9 cm long, 1 mm in diameter; floral tube obovoid-turbinate, 2–3 mm long, ca 3 mm wide at apex, green, densely pilose with mostly glandular trichomes; calyx lobes 5, lanceolate, flat, membranous, connate at the base for about 1 mm, 1.0–1.5 cm long, 1–3 mm wide at base, apex acuminate, both sides green, pilose with glandular and eglandular trichomes, veins 3, prominent; corolla obliquely subcampanulate, tube 1.2–1.5 cm long, to 8 mm wide at mouth, outside green to cream, pilose, inside lighter green, glabrous, limb 5-lobed, 1.6–2.2 cm broad, each lobe yellow-green, upper lobes erect, sparsely ciliate-glandular, lateral and basal lobes patent with prominent veins, 4–6 mm long, 5–8 mm wide; stamens 4, adnate to base of corolla tube for less than 1 mm, exserted beyond mouth about 1.2 cm, filaments linear, 2.1–2.4 cm long, 0.5 mm wide, greenish-yellow to pink, glabrous, anthers oblong, 2.5 mm long, 1 mm wide, reddish and glabrous on back, more or less coherent side by side until dehiscence, staminode not seen; ovary inferior, disc annular, 2 mm across, puberulent,

style linear, as long as the stamens at anthesis, 0.5 mm in diameter, glabrous, stigma stomatomorphic, papillate.

Fruits and seeds not seen.

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Piñar del Río, Cuba, C. Wright 3078 (GOET, holotype, Figure 81; BM, G, GH, K, MO, P, isotypes).

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY.—Gesneria gloxinioides is endemic to western Cuba (Figure 82), habitat unknown. The large campanulate corolla could probably accommodate any of the flower-feeding bats and hummingbird species found in Cuba, and may not be adapted for any particular pollinator.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—CUBA. PROVINCE OF PIÑAR DEL RÍO: 1860–1864, C. Wright 3078 (GOET, holotype of Conradia gloxinioides Grisebach; BM, G 2 sheets, GH, K, MO, P, isotypes).

Gesneria gloxinioides là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Tai voi. Loài này được (Griseb.) Urb. mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1901.