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Family:

Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 29: 338. 1950

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Isotype -- F. Cardona Puig

Description:

Description: Shrub to 3(-5) m tall with arching branches; mature stems terete, weakly striate, bearing a few hispid hairs or their bases; twigs often distally flexuous, terete to subterete, striate, densely ferruginous- to cinereous-tomentose at tips but glabrate, also moderately to densely hispid with minutely gland-tipped hairs to 2.5 mm long. Leaves coriaceous to subcoriaceous, basically flat, ovate, 3-5 x (0.9-)1.3-3(-4) cm, base rounded, apex rounded, acute to short-acuminate, shortly and bluntly mucronate, margin entire, narrowly revolute, bearing 1-2(-3) pairs of pustular, rarely short-stipitate, glands at base and onto petiole, essentially glabrous above or short-puberulent at base of midrib, densely brownish- to ferruginous-tomentose beneath, rarely glabrate; pinnately nerved with midrib impressed above and raised beneath, lateral nerves (4-5 per side) impressed but inconspicuous above and raised beneath, reticulate veinlets impressed above and raised beneath; petiole subterete, narrowly canaliculate above, rugose, 3-6 mm long, densely short-ferruginous-tomentose to glabrate, rarely hispid as stems. Inflorescence 3-8-flowered; rachis, floral bract, pedicel, bracteoles, and calyx all densely short-ferruginous-tomentose (calyx sometimes glabrate, rarely glandular-hispid); rachis terete, often flexuous, 1-3 cm long; floral bract ovate, concave, ca. 2 mm long, obtuse; pedicel terete, 5-6 mm long; bracteoles ovate, 1.5-2 mm long, acute. Flowers with calyx 5-6 mm long, coral-red when fresh, lobes ovate, 4-5 mm long, acute, densely and shortly ferruginous-tomentose in apical half within and sometimes without, rarely with 1-4 minutely stipitate glands marginally at base; corolla ca. 7 mm long, densely and shortly ferruginous-tomentose opposite the lobes, otherwise glabrous between and at base, lobes ovate-deltoid, 2.5-3 mm long, acute; stamens 6 mm long; filaments ca. 3.5 mm long; anthers ca. 2.5 mm long; thecae rounded and mucronate basally, 1.5 mm long; tubules ca. 1 mm long, dehiscing by flaring, oblique, terminal pores; ovary densely pilose so as to obscure surface; style glabrous, ca. 3.5 mm long. Berry spherical, 1 cm diam., densely short-pilose, greenish-red to brown.

Distribution: Endemic to the Venezuelan Guayana, in the mountains of the Chimantá Massif, where it is found in open, rocky (igneous and sandstone) savanna vegetation of small shrubs or herbs, at elevations of 1850 to 2300 m. Flowering collections have been made from Oct to Jun, and fruiting from Jan to Apr.

Type: Venezuela. Bolívar: Macizo de Chimantá, Cerro Acopán, Río Caroní, 2000 m, Oct 1947 (fl), Cardona 2300 (holotype, US, photo NY neg. 12215; isotypes, MO, NY).

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Tepuia cardonae A.C.Sm.: [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.
Tepuia cardonae A.C.Sm.: [Article] Maguire, Bassett. 1978. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part X. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 29: 1-288.