Gesneria shaferi Urb.

Gesneria shaferi Urban

Gesneria shaferi Urban, Symb. Ant. 7:541, 1913.

Plants acaulescent to sufiruticose: stems erect, decumbent or pendent, woody, to 2 dm long, 1–4 mm in diameter; bark reddish-brown to gray, rugose, glabrous, sometimes resinous at apex, branches few or none.

Leaves rosulate, crowded at the stem apices: petioles sulcate, sometimes alate at base, nearly sessile to 5 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, reddish-brown, glandular, verrucose to nearly smooth; blades elliptic to oblanceolate or obovate, 1.9–9.4 cm long, 0.6–4.5 cm wide, bullate, young leaves membranous and pilose with appressed articulate trichomes, trichomes sometimes with broad bases, older leaves becoming subcoriaceous and sometimes glabrescent, base acute to cuneate, margin entire or crenate to finely lobulate-serrate toward the acute apex, sometimes ciliate with eglandular trichomes, adaxial surface green, glossy, abaxial surface reddish-brown or green.

Inflorescences of one flower: peduncles terete or subquadrangular, 1–7 mm long, 1 mm in diameter, glabrous; bracts 2, linear-lanceolate, 1–8 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, green or reddish, glabrous-glandular; pedicels terete, 0.3–3.3 cm long, less than 1 mm in diameter, reddish, glabrous or glandular, sometimes resinous; floral tube nearly spherical to turbinate, 5-angled, 2 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, green or reddish, glandular-resinous; calyx lobes 5, connate at the base for about 2 mm, each lobe broadly triangular to lanceolate or ovate, 4–9 mm long, 1–4 mm wide, margin recurved, entire, apex acute to acuminate, green to red, outside glabrous, but glandular, inside pilose to glabrescent, glandular, veins 3–5, prominent; corolla campanulate, gradually expanding from the base, tube 1.0–2.2 cm long, 4 mm wide at the base, 0.8–1.2 cm wide at the mouth, exterior yellow to red with darker veins, sparsely pubescent, interior reddish or yellow, glandular, limb bilabiate, 5-lobed, 1.5–2.4 cm wide, upper lobes erect, connate for one-third of their length, 0.7–1.5 cm long, 0.7–1.5 cm wide, yellow or yellow with reddish veins, margin crenulate to subentire, lateral and basal lobes semiorbiculate, reflexed or patent, 0.6–1.0 cm long, 0.5–1.0 cm wide, yellow with reddish veins to dark red, margin subentire to denticulate or suberose and sometimes ciliate; stamens 4, adnate to base of corolla tube, exserted for 3–8 mm beyond mouth, filaments linear, 1.5–2.2 cm long, yellow to reddish, sparsely pilose or glabrous, anthers rectangular, 1.0–2.0 mm long, 0.6–1.0 mm wide, coherent in 2 pairs by their apices or rarely side by side, staminode 5–8 mm long; ovary inferior, apex tomentose, disc 5-angled, white, style slender, to 2.5 cm long, green or reddish, pilose to glabrescent or glabrous, stigma clavate, green, papillate.

Capsule broadly turbinate, forming a splash cup, 3–7 mm long, 4–9 mm in diameter, brownish-gray, glabrescent, costae 5–15, sometimes obscure; seeds fusiform, about 1 mm long, slightly twisted, black.