Taxon Details: Gaultheria buxifolia Willd.
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Narratives:
Family:
Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)
Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)
Scientific Name:
Gaultheria buxifolia Willd.
Gaultheria buxifolia Willd.
Primary Citation:
Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin neue Schriften 3: 422. 1801
Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin neue Schriften 3: 422. 1801
Accepted Name:
This name is currently accepted.
This name is currently accepted.
Description:
Description: Erect or rarely clambering shrub, (0.3-)1-3(-5) m tall and to 7.5 cm diam.; mature stems terete, striate, glabrous or rarely puberulent, and also usually weakly strigose; bark reddish-brown to grayish, thin, often exfoliating in strips; twigs subterete often complanate or ribbed, puberulent and/or pubescent with white hairs, also with appressed to spreading, setose-hirsute, straight or crisped, ferruginous, base swollen, eglandular hairs to ca. 2 mm long (also with short, gland-tipped setae 0.2 mm long); buds ovate, 1-2.5 mm long, scales reddish-brown, short-pilose. Leaves usually ascending when young but with a strong tendency to be reflexed later along mature stems, blades broadly ovate (nearly rotund), elliptic to ovate, (0.5-)1.5-2.5(-3) x (0.2-)1-2(-3.3) cm, base rounded and subcordate, or obtuse, apex acute to obtuse or short-acuminate (nearly rounded), margin crenate to serrate with each tooth terminating in a short-setose (gland-tipped) hair, lamina flat to slightly revolute adaxially, essentially glabrous but normally short-pilose only at base of midrib and onto petiole (short-pilose over entire surface then glabrate, also at very base along midrib possessing short, gland-tipped setae ca. 0.2 mm long), abaxially glabrous or more commonly sparingly short-strigose with basally swollen, eglandular hairs, sometimes also with scattered, short (ca. 0.2 mm long), gland-tipped setae; midrib, lateral, and reticulate veinlets plane and obscure to raised and conspicuous above, raised and conspicuous beneath; petiole subterete, broadly flattened, and canaliculate above, 1-2(-4) mm long, short-pilose above and also deciduously short-strigose beneath with setose hairs as on twigs (also with up to 0.2 mm long, black, clavate, gland-tipped setae in var. elassantha). Inflorescence with flowers solitary towards branch tips, in axils of usually reduced leaves, the leaves sometimes becoming nearly bract-like (i.e., 5 x 2 mm); pedicels subterete, slightly striate, (4-)5-8(-17) mm long at anthesis, elongating to 10-17 mm long in fruit, weakly to densely puberulent or short-pilose (or puberulence lacking) and also weakly to densely strigose with hairs short (ca. 0.3 mm long), straight, and gland-tipped, or longer (to 1.5 mm long) and then straight to crisped and eglandular, the indumentum in nearly any combination or with one or more types lacking; bracteoles 2-9 along basal half of pedicel, ovate to ovate-elliptic, 1.5-3.5 x 1.5-2.5 mm, acute, the lowest usually adaxially densely pilose becoming more glabrous distally (glabrous on lamina but always ciliate); floral bract similar to bracteoles but nearly always pilose. Flowers with calyx 3-5 mm long, lobes ovate, (1.8-)3-3.5 x (1.7-)2-2.5 mm, acute to acuminate, glabrous to distally short-pilose without and distally sparsely to densely short-pilose within, ciliate to ciliolate and often also marginally glandular-fimbriate; corolla urecolate, cylindric-urceolate, to rotate-campanulate (basally gibbous), (4-)5-6.5 x (2.5-)4-5(-7) mm, glabrous, weakly short-pilose, or moderately pilose without (scattered short-pilose within), white to pale yellowish-green, lobes ovate, to 1.6 mm long, obtuse; stamens (2.5-)3-4 mm long; filaments (1.6-)2.3-3.3 mm long, glabrous to densely pilose; anthers 0.7-1.3 mm long, awns conspicuous; ovary nearly glabrous to densely short-pilose; style (2-)3.5-4.8 mm long, glabrous to short-pilose proximally. Fruiting calyx globose when fresh but turbinate when dry, (5-)6-10 mm diam., blue-black.
Distribution: Found from Venezuela to Colombia and then disjunct to Peru and Bolivia on wet roadside banks, open páramo hillsides, forest edge, scrubby slopes, in grass páramo and ceja to grass-steppe at elevations of (1300-)2000-3400(-4000) m. Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.
Type: Venezuela. Dtto. Federal: Caracas, summit of Avila, Bredemeyer 9 (holotype, B-Willd. no. 8292, photos IDC and F neg. 4743; probable isotype, W).
Key to the Varieties of Gaultheria buxifolia:1. Corolla white, urceolate, broadest at the base, not gibbous when fresh, sometimes pilose; ovary densely short-pilose; Venezuela to south-central Colombia (not Antioquia or Tolima) ........ var. buxifolia
1. Corolla pale yellowish-green, rotate-campanulate, broadest at mouth, gibbous at base when fresh, glabrous; ovary weakly short-pilose to glabrous; Colombia and Peru to Bolivia.
2. Petioles with short-setose glandular hairs (0.2 mm long) adaxially and onto the adjacent midrib of the blade; floral bracts and bracteoles 2-3, with surface glabrous, but margin ciliate; pedicels nearly lacking pilose hairs but often with glandular setae; margins of calyx lobes and bracteoles sometimes glandular-fimbriate; Colombia (Antioquia and Tolima) ............. var. elassantha
2. Petioles without short glandular hairs adaxially; floral bracts and bracteoles ca. 5, surface pilose and margin ciliate; pedicels densely pilose, and also with eglandular (rarely glandular) setae; margins of calyx lobes eglandular; south-central Peru to northern Bolivia .................. var. secunda
Description: Erect or rarely clambering shrub, (0.3-)1-3(-5) m tall and to 7.5 cm diam.; mature stems terete, striate, glabrous or rarely puberulent, and also usually weakly strigose; bark reddish-brown to grayish, thin, often exfoliating in strips; twigs subterete often complanate or ribbed, puberulent and/or pubescent with white hairs, also with appressed to spreading, setose-hirsute, straight or crisped, ferruginous, base swollen, eglandular hairs to ca. 2 mm long (also with short, gland-tipped setae 0.2 mm long); buds ovate, 1-2.5 mm long, scales reddish-brown, short-pilose. Leaves usually ascending when young but with a strong tendency to be reflexed later along mature stems, blades broadly ovate (nearly rotund), elliptic to ovate, (0.5-)1.5-2.5(-3) x (0.2-)1-2(-3.3) cm, base rounded and subcordate, or obtuse, apex acute to obtuse or short-acuminate (nearly rounded), margin crenate to serrate with each tooth terminating in a short-setose (gland-tipped) hair, lamina flat to slightly revolute adaxially, essentially glabrous but normally short-pilose only at base of midrib and onto petiole (short-pilose over entire surface then glabrate, also at very base along midrib possessing short, gland-tipped setae ca. 0.2 mm long), abaxially glabrous or more commonly sparingly short-strigose with basally swollen, eglandular hairs, sometimes also with scattered, short (ca. 0.2 mm long), gland-tipped setae; midrib, lateral, and reticulate veinlets plane and obscure to raised and conspicuous above, raised and conspicuous beneath; petiole subterete, broadly flattened, and canaliculate above, 1-2(-4) mm long, short-pilose above and also deciduously short-strigose beneath with setose hairs as on twigs (also with up to 0.2 mm long, black, clavate, gland-tipped setae in var. elassantha). Inflorescence with flowers solitary towards branch tips, in axils of usually reduced leaves, the leaves sometimes becoming nearly bract-like (i.e., 5 x 2 mm); pedicels subterete, slightly striate, (4-)5-8(-17) mm long at anthesis, elongating to 10-17 mm long in fruit, weakly to densely puberulent or short-pilose (or puberulence lacking) and also weakly to densely strigose with hairs short (ca. 0.3 mm long), straight, and gland-tipped, or longer (to 1.5 mm long) and then straight to crisped and eglandular, the indumentum in nearly any combination or with one or more types lacking; bracteoles 2-9 along basal half of pedicel, ovate to ovate-elliptic, 1.5-3.5 x 1.5-2.5 mm, acute, the lowest usually adaxially densely pilose becoming more glabrous distally (glabrous on lamina but always ciliate); floral bract similar to bracteoles but nearly always pilose. Flowers with calyx 3-5 mm long, lobes ovate, (1.8-)3-3.5 x (1.7-)2-2.5 mm, acute to acuminate, glabrous to distally short-pilose without and distally sparsely to densely short-pilose within, ciliate to ciliolate and often also marginally glandular-fimbriate; corolla urecolate, cylindric-urceolate, to rotate-campanulate (basally gibbous), (4-)5-6.5 x (2.5-)4-5(-7) mm, glabrous, weakly short-pilose, or moderately pilose without (scattered short-pilose within), white to pale yellowish-green, lobes ovate, to 1.6 mm long, obtuse; stamens (2.5-)3-4 mm long; filaments (1.6-)2.3-3.3 mm long, glabrous to densely pilose; anthers 0.7-1.3 mm long, awns conspicuous; ovary nearly glabrous to densely short-pilose; style (2-)3.5-4.8 mm long, glabrous to short-pilose proximally. Fruiting calyx globose when fresh but turbinate when dry, (5-)6-10 mm diam., blue-black.
Distribution: Found from Venezuela to Colombia and then disjunct to Peru and Bolivia on wet roadside banks, open páramo hillsides, forest edge, scrubby slopes, in grass páramo and ceja to grass-steppe at elevations of (1300-)2000-3400(-4000) m. Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.
Type: Venezuela. Dtto. Federal: Caracas, summit of Avila, Bredemeyer 9 (holotype, B-Willd. no. 8292, photos IDC and F neg. 4743; probable isotype, W).
Key to the Varieties of Gaultheria buxifolia:
Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):
Gaultheria buxifolia Willd.: [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.
Gaultheria buxifolia Willd.: [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.