Gesneria hypoclada Urb. & Ekman

Gesneria hypoclada Urban & Ekman

Gesneria hypoclada Urban & Ekman in Urban, Ark. Bot. 20A (5):50, 1926.

Small trees: stems woody, erect, bark verruculose from erumpent lenticels and yellowish when young, becoming rugose to smooth and gray-brown with age, glabrous, apices resinous; branches numerous, terete, slender, ca 2 mm in diameter at 10 cm below apex, internodes 0.1–1.1 cm long, leaf scars prominent.

Leaves alternate, spiral, congested toward the branch apices: petioles sulcate, 3–6 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, verruculose, yellow from resin, glandular; blades elliptic to obovate, 2.1–4.2 cm long, 1.0–1.4 cm wide, subcoriaceous, base narrowly acute, margin subentire below, above crenate or serrate, apex acute, adaxial surface plane, yellow-green from resin, glandular, midvein impressed, abaxial surface yellow-green, glandular, veins darker, prominent.

Inflorescences axillary near branch apices, 1– flowered, equaling the subtending leaves: peduncles curved, terete, 6–8 mm long, less than 1 mm in diameter, yellow, glandular-resinous; bracts 2, caducous, approximate, linear, 1–3 mm long, yellow, glandular-resinous, apex apiculate; pedicels terete or subalate toward apex, 4–9 mm long, less than 1 mm wide, yellow, glandular-resinous; floral tube turbinate, ca 2 mm long, 2–3 mm wide at apex, green to yellow, glandular-resinous, costae 5; calyx 5-lobed, lobes connate at base for less than 1 mm, erect at anthesis becoming sinuate, each narrowly triangular, 4–10 mm long, ca 1 mm wide at base, margin chartaceous, midvein prominent outside, both sides yellow-green, glandular-resinous; corolla tube cylindric, subventricose, 0.8–1.5 cm long, ca 3 mm wide at base, ca 6 mm wide above, green to brown with darker veins, glandular-resinous both sides, limb slightly bilabiate, upper lobes erect, suborbiculate, ca 3 mm long and wide, margin crenate, stipitate-glandular, lateral and basal lobes patent, orbiculate, ca 3 mm long and wide, glandular, entire; stamens 4, adnate to corolla base, exserted only to corolla limb, filaments 1.3–1.5 cm long, yellow-green, glabrous, anthers oblong, ca 1.5 mm long, coherent in 2 pairs at anthesis, staminode 5 mm long; ovary inferior, apex pilose, disc annular, yellow, style 1.7–1.8 cm long, yellow-green, pilose at base, stigma papillate.

Capsule turbinate, ca 4 mm long and wide at apex, brown, glandular-resinous; seeds not seen.

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Morne Tranchant, Pétionville, Haiti, E. Ekman H1877 (S, holotype; EHH, IJ, K, NY, S, US Figure 37a, isotypes).

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY.—Gesneria hypoclada is known only from the mountains of Département de l’Ouest in southeastern Haiti (Figure 27) at elevations of 1800–1825 m, where it grows on hard limestone. This species has been collected in flower only in September.

SPECIMEN EXAMINED.—HISPANIOLA. HAITI. Département de l’Ouest: Massif de la Selle, Morne Tranchant, Pétionville, 1800–1825 m, 13 September 1924, E. Ekman H1877 (S, holotype of Gesneria hypoclada Urban & Ekman; EHH, IJ, K, NY, S, US 2 sheets, isotypes).