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Family:

Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Descr. Pl. Nouv. 5: pl. 5. 1800

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Common Names:

ajate'es, an-dzits, arrayar, b. Ajaté es, cacao, melotera, monte pespita, mortiño borachero azuloso, mote pelado, mullaca, pachín, pango mullaca, papacusa, pasas, péjoas, pejua macho, pejuas, pesjúa, pesjua macho, pesjuas

Description:

Description: Erect to arching or sometimes spreading with plagiotropic habit, sometimes rhizomatous, terrestrial or rarely epiphytic shrub to small tree (0.1-)0.5-3(-7.5) m tall; mature stem terete to subterete, striate, often nitid, sometimes glaucous, glabrous to sparsely white puberulent, also often persistently hispid-hirsute with thin, basally swollen, straight or crisped, ± ferruginous, eglandular or gland-tipped hairs 0.4-3 mm long, sometimes these deciduous and then stem often punctate or scabrous due to persistent hair bases; bark cracking longitudinally, dark reddish-brown to grayish-red when dry; twigs terete to subterete, sometimes flexuous, striate to ridged, glabrous to densely white puberulent, also moderately to densely hirsute with thin to stout, straight or crisped, ferruginous, somewhat basally swollen, eglandular or with minutely to conspicuously gland-tipped hairs to 1.5 mm long, reddish-brown when dry; buds terete to complanate, ovoid, to ca. 5 mm long, scales numerous, ovate, obtuse to rounded, striate, glabrous to puberulent, scarious and ciliolate, reddish-brown when dry. Leaves coriaceous, flat to sometimes somewhat bullate, spreading or erect and sometimes clasping, ovate (sometimes broadly so), elliptic, to subrotund, (2-)5-11 x (1-)2.5-6.5 cm, base rounded or obtuse to broadly cuneate and often subcordate to deeply cordate, sometimes truncate, apex acute or short-acuminate (rounded) with a short, blunt, often prominent, glandular mucro, remotely and shallowly crenate-serrate (at base) becoming minutely but sharply serrate (distally), with each tooth terminating in a deciduous, basally swollen, usually gland-tipped hair to 1 mm long, lamina glabrous to white puberulent along veins above, also sparsely or moderately hirsute on lamina or especially along veins with deciduous, often gland-tipped hairs less than 1 mm long, sparsely to densely hirsute beneath with deciduous, straight or crisped, ferruginous, eglandular or minutely gland-tipped hairs to 2 mm long, on both surfaces lamina often becomes glabrate but the swollen basal portion of the deciduous hairs remains leaving blackish to reddish punctae scattered over entire surface and sometimes causing lamina to be scabrous; midrib impressed above and raised beneath, often conspicuously thickened at base for 1-3 cm, lateral nerves 4-5 per side, plane to impressed above and raised beneath, reticulate veinlets plane to slightly impressed or raised above and raised beneath, usually obscure above but sometimes very conspicuous beneath; petiole subterete, shallowly but broadly to narrowly canaliculate above, rugose, 1-8 mm long, deciduously white puberulent especially above, also often hirsute with eglandular or gland-tipped hairs and becoming punctate as twigs. Inflorescence axillary, racemose, 10-26-flowered, surrounded at the base by numerous, striate, ovate to elliptic, acute to rounded, scarious and ciliolate bracts to ca. 10 mm long; rachis subterete, bluntly angled, striate, 2-12 cm long, moderately to densely white puberulent, also moderately to densely hirsute with thin to stout, straight to crisped, ferruginous, glandular or gland-tipped hairs to 1.5 mm long; pedicels terete, striate, (3-)8-13 mm long, pubescent as rachis; bracteoles located near base or middle of pedicel or rarely above the middle, wide-spreading, sometimes subopposite, striate, narrowly elliptic-ovate to linear-ovate, (1.5-)5-7 x (0.5-)1-1.5 mm, long-acuminate, weakly puberulent, ciliolate, margin often bearing gland-tipped hairs, dorsally glabrous to sparsely to densely pubescent often with gland-tipped hairs ca. 0.2 mm long; floral bract subcoriaceous, located at base or often adnate to pedicel for 1 mm, striate, erect or more normally spreading to reflexed, concave, cochleariform, longitudinally curled or revolute, ovate at base but becoming ovate-elliptic to obovate distally, (3.7-)8-16 x (1.6-)3-6 mm, acute to acuminate, sparsely puberulent all over especially at base, sparsely ciliolate and marginally often densely short-glandular pubescent, also lamina often dorsally sparsely to densely glandular pubescent. Calyx (3-)4-6(-9) mm long, glabrous to densely white puberulent especially at base, sometimes glabrate distally or only puberulent at lobe tips, also often moderately to densely hirsute with straight to crisped, eglandular or glandular setae all over without, lobes erect to sometimes reflexed when dry, narrowly to broadly triangular to ovate, (1.5-)3-5.5(-7) x 1.3-3.3 mm, acute to long-acuminate, densely ciliolate, usually puberulent or sometimes glabrous within; corolla ovate-urceolate to cylindric-urceolate, terete or rarely apparently bluntly angled, (4.5-)6-7(-8) x 4-6 mm, essentially glabrous to sparsely or densely short-pilose without, also often sparsely to densely hirsute to strigose without with straight to crisped, eglandular or gland-tipped, ferruginous hairs to 0.7 mm long, glabrous or weakly short-pilose within, white to cream-colored through rose to dark red when fresh, lobes ovate, (0.5-)1-1.5 mm long, obtuse; stamens (2.7-)5-6 mm long; filaments (2.1-)3.5-5 mm long, pilose at margin; anthers 1.2-2.8 mm long, awns short and sometimes inconspicuous to conspicuous; ovary glabrous to densely short-pilose; style 4-6 mm long, glabrous to short-pilose at base. Fruiting calyx 7-12(-15) mm diam., glabrous to sparsely pilose, sometimes also sparsely hirsute with land-tipped hairs, blue-black. Chromosome number: n=11, 2n=22 (Luteyn & Callejas 10058, Luteyn & Cotton 10869, and Luteyn & Cotton 11409).

Distribution: Widespread from north-central Mexico through Central America into the Andes of South America to northern Argentina, also very rare in SE Brazil. Common in open or shrubby areas such as roadbanks, landslides, or meadows, rocky places, Quercus-Pinus-Cupressus forest (Mexico to Honduras and Costa Rica), edge of cloud and elfin forest, páramo and subpáramo thickets, and rarely boggy areas at elevations of (800-)1400-3300(-3700) m. Flowering and fruiting specimens have been collected throughout the year. Probably hybridizes occasionally with Pernettya prostrata (Cav.) DC. as well as other gaultherias, viz. G. acuminata, G. alnifolia var. alnifolia, G. anastomosans, G. bracteata, G. eriophylla var. mucronata, G. glomerata, G. lanigera var. lanigera, G. parvifolia, G. reticulata, and possibly also G. rigida, G. serrata var.organensis, and G. vaccinioides.

Common names: Mexico: ajate'es, b. Ajaté es, tzobet (Chiapas); Axocopa (Hidalgo & Veracruz); an-dzits (Oaxaca); arrayar (Veracruz). El Salvador: pasas (fide Flora of Guatemala). Venezuela: pesgua (Aragua); pejua macho, pesjúa, pesjua macho (Distrito Federal); melotera (Mérida); quemadero (Táchira); cacaíto (Trujillo). Colombia: mortiño, uva (Antioquia); pachín (Boyacá, Santander); mortiño borachero azuloso, urbalai (Cauca); cacao (Distrito Federal). Peru: papacusa (Amazonas); macha macha, monte pespita (Cuzco); pachyla-pachyla (Huancavelica); mullaca (San Martín); pango mullaca, pejoa (Macbride, 1959).

Uses: The fruits are eaten throughout the range, e.g., "fruit black, eaten by small boys" (Fosberg 21626), and the plant is used as a "cough-remedy" in Peru (McCarrol 31).

Cultivated: E, K.

Type: Peru, "ex horto Celsiano", 1792, without further data, (lectotype, G, photo F neg. 28925; probable isolectotypes, B-Willd. no. 8298, photo NY s.n., C, G, K, MO).

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Gaultheria erecta Vent.: [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.