Taxon Profile:

	The Plant List
	International Plant Name Index
	Tropicos
	Catalogue of Life
	Global Biodiversity Information Facility
	JSTOR Types
	JSTOR
	BHL
	Encyclopedia of Life
	WikiSpecies
	Google Scholar
	PubMed
	Morphbank
	IUCN
	National Center for Biotechnology Information
	Barcode of Life

Family:

Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Pl. Hartw. 222. 1846

Common Names:

tembo tape

Description:

Description: Terrestrial or epiphytic shrublet, mostly 2-6 dm tall, branches pendent, arching, or scandenty; stem subterete, striate, glabrate; twigs subterete, ribbed or striate, densely to moderately spreading puberulent, glabrate. Leaves coriaceous, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, (1-)2-3.5(-5) x 0.8-)1.5-2.5(-3) cm, base rounded, subcordate, or broadly obtuse, apex obtuse or rounded to acute, sometimes shortly but bluntly acuminate, margin entire and slightly recurved, moderately short-pilose with white hairs on both surfaces, glabrate, usually also appressed glandular-fimbriate beneath with fimbriae ca. 0.1 mm long; 3(-5)-plinerved from the base, midrib and lateral nerves often impressed above (sometimes raised) and raised beneath, often all but midrib obscure beneath, reticulate veinlets usually slightly raised but obscure; petiole terete, rugose, 1-2(-3) mm long, glabrous to pilose. Inflorescence axillary, flowers 1(-2) per axil, sometimes extending beyond the leaves; floral bract ovate, obtuse, ca. 0.3 mm long, pilose; pedicel terete, (10-)15-25 mm long, pilose or glabrous, also often with inconspicuous, appressed, glandular fimbriae; bracteoles nearly basal, minute, oblong-aristate, ca. 0.4 mm long, pilose. Flowers 4-5-merous, with calyx ca. 3 mm long, usually moderately to densely spreading pilose, occasionally sparingly so or glabrous, usually also appressed glandular-fimbriate; hypanthium subglobose or thickly fusiform to shortly cylindric, 1-1.5(-2) mm long; limb cylindric-campanulate, erect, 1-1.6 mm long; lobes deltate, acute, 0.5-0.8 mm long, often with a tuft of hairs at the tip; sinuses rounded; corolla membranous to subcarnose, cylindric-urceolate, (4-)5-7(-9) mm long and 1.2-3 mm diam., white to bright red, glabrous or puberulous distally, sparsely and inconspicuously glandular-fimbriate, the lobes spreading, narrowly riangular, acute, ca. 0.6 mm long; stamen usually either 4-5 or 8-10, slightly shorter than the corolla, 6.5-8 mm long; filaments slender, 2-5 mm long, pilose or glabrous; anthers 2-4 mm long; thecae ca. 1-1.6 mm long; tubules distinct, ca. 1.5-2.3 mm long, dehiscing by clefts to 1.3 mm long. Berry globose to thickly fusiform, fleshy, to 15 mm diam., pilose or glabrous, white or white with a violet tinge at maturity.

Distribution: Southern Mexico to N Bolivia, east to French Guiana, and Hispaniola; premontane wet and rainforest, montane wet and rainforest, and elfin forest, at 150-3350 m altitude.

Type: Colombia. Cundinamarca: Tena near Bogotá, Hartweg 1215 (holotype: K-Herb. Benth., photo NY neg. 13013; isotypes: BREM n.v., K-Herb. Hook.).

Vernacular name: tembo tape (Cayape, Ecuador).

Uses: Medicinally leaves macerated with water and applied to area for heart pains.

Cultivated: ACAD, E, NY.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Sphyrospermum cordifolium Benth.: [Article] 1846. Pl. Hartw. 222.
Sphyrospermum cordifolium Benth.: [Article] Smith, Albert C. 1952. Plants collected in Ecuador by W. H. camp. Vaceiniaceae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 8 (1): 41-85.
Sphyrospermum cordifolium Benth.: [Article] Maguire, Bassett. 1978. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part X. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 29: 1-288.