Ceratostema macbrydiorum Luteyn
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Authority
1996. Fl. Ecuador. 54: 242.
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Family
Ericaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type: Ecuador. Morona-Santiago: NW range of Cordillera del Cóndor, W side overlooking Río Zamora, 2000 m, 5 Jan 1972 (late fl), MacBryde & Andreetta 1022 (holotype, MO).
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Description
Species Description - Trailing, epiphytic shrub, reportedly with lignotubers; stem terete, striate, the bark cracking longitudinally; twigs terete, striate and ribbed, densely white, short-hirsute. Leaves coriaceous, broadly ovate to hemispherical, 6-8.5 x 4.8-6.5 cm, base rounded, deeply cordate with the lobes broadly imbricate, apex abruptly and sharply short-acuminate, margin entire, densely pilose above when young then glabrate, densely pilose with white, appressed hairs to somewhat floccose-tomentose beneath; 5-7(-9)-plinerved from near the base, midrib plane to slightly raised above and raised beneath, lateral nerves and reticulate veinlets slightly raised but inconspicuous on both surfaces; petiole obscure, terete, rugose, 1-2 mm long and in diam., densely hirsute with white hairs. Inflorescence axillary, solitary, racemose, 1-flowered, surrounded at the base by a series of triangular, acute, pilose bractlets to 2 mm long; rachis terete, striate, ca. 5 mm long, short-pilose; floral bract triangular, acute, 2.2 x 1.2 mm, short-pilose, eglandular; pedicel terete, striate, ca. 9 mm long, short-pilose; bracteoles basal, similar to floral bract but ca. 1.5 mm long. Flowers with calyx articulate, 5-lobed, ca. 28 mm long, appressed pilose all over but more dense on hypanthium; hypanthium cylindric, bluntly 5-winged, ca. 6 mm long and ca. 9 mm diam.; limb cylindric-spreading, ca. 22 mm long; lobes ovate to elliptic-ovate, sharply acuminate, ca. 21 x 7-8 mm, margins eglandular; sinuses acute; corolla and stamens not seen. Berry not seen.
Distribution and Ecology - Endemic to Ecuador (Morona-Santiago), and known only from two collections, at 1000 m.