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Family:

Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Nov. Gen. Sp. (Kunth) 3: 285. 1819

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Common Names:

borrachera, chirridera, maiz de perro, mortiño, reventadera, totiadera, totiadera blanca, veneno, uvito

Description:

Description: Erect shrub (0.2-)1-1.5(-5) m tall, often much-branched and much-reduced with gnarled stems at elevations over 3300 m; mature stems terete, glabrous; bark gray to reddish-brown, thin, often exfoliating in strips; twigs subterete, usually sparsely to densely (sometimes not) puberulent to short-pilose with white hairs, also usually sparsely to densely (rarely not) strigose with slightly spreading, straight to crisped, ferruginous, basally swollen, eglandular hairs to 2.5 mm long; buds ovate, 2-3 mm long, scales tan to reddish, glabrous. Leaves usually ascending or spreading, ovate, 0.7-1.6(-2) x 0.4-1(-1.2) cm, base rounded, obtuse, or broadly cuneate (subcordate), apex acute to acuminate, margin bluntly to sharply serrate with each tooth terminating in a deciduous or persistent, setose hair, often slightly revolute, surfaces glabrous above or inconspicuously puberulent, glabrous beneath or more commonly sparingly strigose with short, basally swollen, eglandular hairs; midrib, lateral nerves, and reticulate veinlets plane, slightly impressed, or slightly raised above, usually slightly raised and conspicuous to inconspicuous beneath; petiole subterete, usually broadly flattened or canaliculate above, slightly rugose, 1.2-3 mm long, usually glabrous but sometimes puberulent above and short-strigose beneath. Inflorescence of solitary, axillary flowers, or as terminal pseudoracemes congested at the branch tips; pedicel terete, somewhat striate, 3.5-9(-14) mm long, indumentum similar to the twigs; bracteoles 2-9(-12), basal or scattered along the pedicel, ovate to ovate-elliptic, 1.5-3.5(-4.2) x 1.5-2.5 mm, acute to acuminate, glabrous or short-pilose, usually ciliate; floral bract similar to bracteoles or leaf-like in all aspects. Calyx 3-4(-5.5) mm long, lobes riangular to ovate, 1.5-3 x 1.5-2 mm, acuminate, ciliolate, glabrous to short-pilose at tips without, rarely strigose at base, usually densely short-pilose within; corolla urceolate to cylindric-urceolate, 4-6(-7) x 3-5(-6.5) mm, usually glabrous without (densely short-pilose or also weakly strigose), essentially glabrous or sparsely pilose within, white to pinkish, lobes ovate, obtuse, ca. 1 mm long; stamens (2-)2.5-4 mm long; filaments 2-3 mm long, glabrous to densely pilose; anthers 1.2-2 mm long, awns long and conspicuous; ovary densely short-pilose; style 2.8-4.5 mm long, glabrous to densely short-pilose in basal half. Fruiting calyx globose when fresh but often becoming turbinate when dry, 4-7(-10) mm diam., blue-black (or white ?). Chromosome number: n=11, 2n=22 (Luteyn et al. 4719).

Distribution: Rare in western Venezuela but frequent and very common in Colombia in open páramo, páramo thickets, and disturbed páramo hillsides at elevations of (1900-)2500-3400(-4100) m. Flowering and fruiting occur throughout the season.

Type: Colombia, without locality, Mutis s.n. (lectotype designated by Luteyn, 1995, LINN Catalogue no. 563.20; probable isolectotypes, LINN Catalogue nos. 563.18 and 563.19; photos of LINN types taken by the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University; possible isolectotypes, US, MA).

Common names: Venezuela: borrachera (Trujillo). Colombia: mortiño (Antioquia); totiadera blanca (Boyacá); reventadera (Boyacá, Cundinamarca); borrachera, chirridera, maiz de perro, totiadera, veneno (Cundinamarca); uvito (Huila).

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Gaultheria anastomosans (L.f.) Kunth: [Article] Luteyn, James L., et al. 1995. Ericaceae, Part II. The Superior-Ovaried Genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae P.P.). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 66: 560.