Gesneria odontophylla Urb. & Ekman

Gesneria odontophylla Urban & Ekman

Gesneria odontophylla Urban & Ekman in Urban, Ark. Bot. 24A(4):34, 1931.

Shrubs: stems woody, to 1 m tall, bark smooth, brown, glabrous, resinous, lenticels obscure; branches numerous above, slender, ca 1.5–3.0 mm in diameter at 10 cm below apex, internodes 0.2–12.0 cm long, leaf scars prominent.

Leaves alternate, clustered at branch apices: petioles sulcate, 1.1–3.0 cm long, ca 1 mm wide, green to yellow, glandular-resinous; blades broadly elliptic to obovate, 6.1–12.0 cm long, 3.1–7.0 cm wide, membranous, base acute, margin subentire below, serrate above, apex acute to acuminate, adaxial surface plane, smooth, light green, glabrous-resinous at the reddish veins, abaxial surface brownish, glabrous, resinous, veins red, prominent.

Inflorescences in upper leaf axils, 3-flowered: immature peduncles ca 1.5 cm long, ca 1 mm in diameter, resinous; young pedicels ca 2 mm long; flowers not seen.

Capsules turbinate; seeds not seen.

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Fond Cochon, near Bras-Sec, Haiti, E. Ekman H10194 (S, holotype (Figure 38b); EHH, IJ, K, S, US, isotypes).

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY.—Gesneria odontophylla is known only from southwestern Haiti (Figure 27) where it grows on rocky, shady hillsides at ca 300 m elevation. Specimens bearing flowers are not known; the type-collection made in June bears only dry immature inflorescences.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—HISPANIOLA. HAITI. Département du Sud: Massif de la Hotte, western group, Les Roseaux, Fond-Cochon, near Bras-Sec, ca 300 m, 28 June 1928, E. Ekman H10194 (S, holotype of Gesneria odontophylla Urban & Ekman; EHH, IJ, K, S, US, isotypes).