Gesneria lanceolata Urb. & Ekman

Gesneria lanceolata Urban & Ekman

Gesneria lanceolata Urban & Ekman in Urban, Ark. Bot. 22A (10):72, 1929.

Shrubs: stems woody, erect to ca 2 m tall (fide Ekman); bark smooth, gray-brown, glabrous, resinous toward the apex; branches numerous, terete, internodes to ca 5 cm long, leaf scars prominent on young branches, becoming obscure.

Leaves alternate, scattered at branch apices: petioles sulcate, 8–15 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, glabrous, resinous; blades narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, 6.7–11.0 cm long 1.5–3.3 cm wide, subcoriaceous, base acute, margin below the middle entire, above denticulate, apex acute to acuminate, adaxial surface plane, smooth, nitid, green, glabrous-glaucescent, midvein impressed, abaxial surface lighter green or light reddish-brown, veins prominent.

Inflorescences in axils of upper leaves, 2– or 3– flowered, ca one-fourth to one-half the length of the subtending leaves: peduncles terete, 3–6 mm long, ca 0.5 mm wide, glabrous; bracts 2, caducous, linear, 2–3 mm long; fruiting pedicels terete, 5–7 mm long, ca 0.3 mm wide. Flowers not seen.

Capsule turbinate, ca 4 mm long, ca 3.5 mm wide toward the apex, gray-brown, glabrous, the persistent calyx lobes linear, ca 1.5 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, fruit apex erumpent, pilose, costae 10; seeds fusiform, ca 0.7 mm long, brown.

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Massif de la Selle, Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, E. Ekman H7861 (S, holotype; IJ, S, isotypes).

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY.—Gesneria lanceolata is endemic to the Massif de la Selle in southern Haiti (Figure 27) at ca 1000 m elevation. The only collection of this species, consisting of fruiting material, was made in March.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—HISPANIOLA. HAITI. Département de l’Ouest: Massif de la Selle, Croix-des-Bouquets, Badeau, at Trou-a-1’Eau, ca 1000 m, 15 March 1927, E. Ekman H7861 (S, holotype of Gesneria lanceolata Urban & Ekman (Figure 38a); IJ, S, isotypes).