Psychotria macrophylla subsp. albacostata (Rusby) Steyerm.
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Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1972. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part IX. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 23: 1-832.
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Family
Rubiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type. Mountain forest, Las Nubes, vicinity of Santa Marta, Dept. Magdalena, Colombia, alt 910-1666 m, 5 Dec 1898, Herbert H. Smith 1806.
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Discussion
Psychotria albacostata Rusby, Descr. N. Sp. S. Amer. Pl. 138. 1920.
This taxon has a definite geographic range at the cooler elevations of the cloud forests of the Coastal Range and Andes of Venezuela west to the Sierra de Santa Marta of Colombia. Although it is in many respects very much like P. macrophylla subsp macrophylla, its characteristic red fruits, short peduncles with broad, widely spreading, much-branched inflorescences, close and minute papillate puberulence on the calyx, hypanthium, inflorescence axes, and usually lower midrib and lateral nerves of the leaf blades, together with the numerous (20-30 on each side), widely spreading nerves of the leaf-blades, suggest that it merits consideration as a well-marked taxon of subspecific rank.