Gaultheria sclerophylla Cuatrec.
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Authority
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. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Ericaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type. Colombia. Tolima: Cordillera Central, between Ibague and Tolima, Alto del Condor, paramo, 3300 m, 17 May 1932 (fl, fr), Cuatrecasas 2720 (holotype, MA, photo NY s.n.).
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Description
Species Description - Erect shrub 0.2-1 m tall; mature stems subterete, bluntly ridged, glabrous; bark thin, cracking longitudinally, grayish- to reddish-brown; twigs subterete, striate, ridged, glabrous to puberulent, or densely spreading to ascending hirsute with hairs to 3 mm long, sometimes also bearing scattered gland-tipped setae to 0.5 mm long, reddish-brown. Leaves thick-coriaceous, narrowly ovate, or elliptic to oblong, (2-)3.5-5(-6.5) × (1-)1.4-2.5(-3.4) cm, base rounded, rarely truncate, apex short-acuminate and sometimes bluntly mucronate, conspicuously bluntly serrate with each tooth terminating in a tiny (0.2-1 mm long) or elongate (to 2 mm long), often deciduous, gland-tipped seta, nitid, essentially glabrous or somewhat punctate beneath from persistent bases of tiny (0.2-0.8 mm long), gland-tipped setae scattered only along the midrib and veins, or also hirsute with hairs to 2 mm long, the lamina usually ± bullate and concave to revolute, bicolorous (i.e., leaves drying darker above than beneath); midrib, lateral nerves (3-4 per side), and reticulate veinlets of a lighter color than lamina when dry, plane or more commonly slightly raised above (impressed), conspicuously raised beneath; petiole subterete, shallowly canaliculate above, 2-3 mm long, glabrous or with few gland-tipped setae, reddish-brown. Inflorescence axillary, racemose, congested and barely exceeding the leaves at anthesis, ca. (11-) 15-20-flowered; rachis subterete, complanate, angled, 3-5 cm long, densely white puberulent to short-pilose and sometimes also with few to many, scattered, gland-tipped setae to 0.4 mm long, surrounded at the base by a series of ovate, keeled, striate, mucronate, glabrous but ciliolate bracts to 4.3 mm long; pedicels terete, striate, 4-8 mm long but elongating to 10 mm after anthesis, pubescent as rachis; bracteoles located at base or along lower 1/3 of pedicel, striate, ovate to linear-ovate, 3-4.5 × 0.7-1 mm, acuminate, ± glabrous but marginally ciliolate and glandular-fimbriate; floral bract coriaceous, conspicuously striate, ± cochleariform, often caducous, ovate to oblanceolate, 5-7(-9) × 2.5-4.5 mm, acute, ± glabrous but marginally ciliolate and short glandular-fimbriate. Calyx (4-)4.5-5 mm long, lobes broadly ovate, (2.7-)3.5-4 × 2.2-2.5 mm, acuminate, glabrous or puberulent at tips within, ciliolate or marginally glandular-fimbriate proximally and ciliolate distally; corolla urceolate, terete or bluntly 5-angled, 5-7 × ca. 4 mm, glabrous (or short-pilose at base), red when fresh, lobes ovate, 1-1.5(-2) mm long, obtuse; stamens 4.7-5 mm long; filaments 3-4 mm long, glabrous; anthers 1.1-1.7 mm long, the awns short to very short; ovary densely short-pilose; style ca. 3-4 mm long, glabrous or puberulent. Fruiting calyx ca. 1 cm diam., blue-black.
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Distribution
Found only at high-elevation habitats from western Venezuela to central Ecuador, in wet páramo, Polylepis-scrub, páramo thicket, and "pedregales" at (3250-)3500-4000 m elev. Flowering and fruiting most frequently from Sep through Jan.
Venezuela South America| Ecuador South America| Colombia South America|