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:

Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 60: 109. 1933

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Common Names:

pesjua macho, pejuas, pesjúa, pesjuas, péjoas

Description:

Description: Erect shrub (0.3-)1-2.5(-4) m tall; fresh stems, leaves, and fruits with strong odor of wintergreen when crushed; mature stems terete, + smooth, glabrous or deciduously strigose, dark brick-red when fresh; bark thin, grayish, exfoliating in thin strips; twigs subterete, often ribbed or complanate, striate, often bright red when fresh, provided with scattered, minute (ca. 0.2 mm long), dark red or black, glandular-tipped setae, or white puberulent and also strigose with stiff, straight, appressed, basally swollen, eglandular, stramineous hairs to 2 mm long; buds ovate, slightly flattened, scales numerous, striate, surface glabrous but densely ciliate. Leaves coriaceous, nitid, obovate to obovate-elliptic, (2.5-)3.5-5(-9) x (1.5-)2.5-3.5(-5.5) cm, base broadly to narrowly cuneate, attenuate and decurrent onto petiole (or rounded but still attenuate), apex rounded to obtuse (emarginate), apex itself bluntly callose-mucronate, margin bluntly serrate with each tooth terminating in a short (ca. 0.1 mm long), gland-tipped hair, both surfaces superficially glabrous but bearing along the veins (especially densely beneath) glandular setae like those of twigs, these often deciduous and then leaving dark-colored punctae (also weakly strigose as on twigs along nerves beneath and then glabrate); midrib and lateral nerves (3-4 per side) plane to slightly impressed but not conspicuous above, raised and conspicuous beneath, reticulate veinlets plane, slightly impressed or slightly raised but inconspicuous above, raised and very conspicuous beneath; petiole subterete, rugose, flattened (puberulent above) glandular-setose as on twigs beneath (strigose beneath), 2.5-5(-8) mm long. Inflorescences clustered at branch tips, axillary, racemose, (10-)15-20-flowered; rachis subterete, ribbed and bluntly angled, (3-)5-7(-8.5) cm long, surrounded at base by a series of ca. 10-12, imbricate, ovate to elliptic, obtuse, striate, glabrous, ciliate bracts to 6 mm long, densely white puberulent and also scattered or densely glandular-setose as on twigs, also densely strigose with straight to crisped hairs as on twigs but to 1 mm long; pedicels subterete, 7-10 mm long, puberulent and glandular-setose as on twigs (strigose as on rachis); bracteoles nearly basal, membranous, linear-ovate, often aristate, or obovate, (2-)3.5-4.5 x 0.5-1.2(-2) mm, ciliolate, glabrous or often short-pilose within or glandular-setose without as on twigs; floral bract usually deciduous by anthesis, membranous, ovate to elliptic-ovate, 4-7 x 2-5 mm, ciliate, acute to obtuse, often short-pilose distally within or glandular-setose without as on twigs. Flowers conspicuously nodding at anthesis; calyx 3.5-4.5 mm long, lobes ovate, (2-)3-4 x 1.5-2 mm, acute, densely ciliate, usually glabrous without (glandular-setose, or strigose), densely short-pilose distally within; corolla urceolate to cylindric-urceolate, bluntly 5-angled, 4-6(-8) x 3.5-5 mm, glabrous (strigose along angles), white when fresh, lobes ovate, ca. 1 mm long, obtuse; stamens 3.2-4.5 mm long; filaments 2.3-3 mm long, sparsely to densely short-pilose; anthers 1.3-1.4 mm long, awns conspicuous; ovary densely short-pilose; style 3-3.5(-5) mm long, glabrous. Fruiting calyx 6-8 mm diam., glabrous (or strigose), blue-black.

Distribution: Venezuela and NE Colombia. A shrub of ecologically "drier" sites (often with bracken fern), usually it is found in the open habitats of rocky, disturbed hillsides, thickets, subpáramo, dry ridges, on poor sandy soil, rarely in elfin forest at elevations of 950-3050 m. Flowering and fruiting occur throughout the year.

Type: Venezuela. Federal District: Caracas and vic., Vargas 148 (holotype, G-DC, photo F neg. 7032; possible isotype, L).

Key to the Varieties of Gaultheria alnifolia: 1. Stems, leaves, and inflorescences not strigose; bracteoles linear-ovate, often aristate; corolla 4-6 mm long; widespread in Venezuela at 1000-3050 m. .............. var. alnifolia 1. Stems, leaves, and inflorescences strigose; bracteolesobovate; corolla 7-8 mm long; Colombia (Norte de Santander) at 950-1087 m. ........... var. grata