Anthopterus wardii Ball
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Authority
1884. Hooker's Icon. Pl. 15: 1465.
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Family
Ericaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type: Colombia. Valle: Buenaventura, near sea level, Ward s.n. (holotype: K-Herb. Hook., photo NY neg. 10613).
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Description
Species Description - Epiphytic, scandent shrub with branches to 10 m long or sometimes terrestrial with arching branches; stem terete to subterete, striate, glabrate; twigs terete to bluntly angled, striate, puberulous. Leaves alternate, elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 4-10 x 1.5-3.5 cm, base cuneate and obtuse or rounded to subcordate, apex acuminate, puberulous proximally along the midrib above, glabrous elsewhere, margin entire and slightly revolute, usually drying brown; 3-5(-7)-plinerved from near the base, midrib and lateral nerves impressed above and prominently raised beneath, reticulate veinlets plane to impressed above and raised beneath; petiole subterete, flattened above, 3-5 mm long, puberulent. Inflorescence axillary, racemose with usually 2-10 flowers, thin and delicate in appearance; rachis subterete to bluntly angled, 1.2-4 cm long, pale green, glabrous but with scattered glandular fimbriae along length; floral bract oblong-lanceolate, long-acuminate, ca. 3 mm long, pale green, glabrous but with scattered glandular fimbriae along margin; pedicel subterete, striate, 10-15 mm long, orange to reddish-orange, glabrous but with scattered glandular fimbriae; bracteoles similar to floral bract but ca. 2 mm long. Flowers glabrous with calyx 8-10 mm long, orange to reddish-orange, with scattered glandular fimbriae; hypanthium obprismatic, ca. 5-6 mm long, the wings ca. 2-2.5 mm wide, conspicuously veined; limb subspreading, 5-6 mm long; lobes triangular-ovate, sharply acute, ca. 2 mm long, conspicuously veined; sinuses obtuse; corolla membranous when dry, somewhat obovate-urceolate with the wings widest above the middle, ca. 10-13 mm long and 10-12 mm in diam. at the widest point, narrowing towards the base and conspicuouly contracted at the throat, the semi-ovate wings 2-5 mm wide, bearing scattered glandular fimbriae, orange to reddish-orange to the throat where turning green, the lobes ovate, obtuse, 1-2 mm long, white; stamen shorter than corolla, 7-10 mm long; filaments essentially distinct but lightly connate for about 1/2 their length, somewhat sigmoid, ca. 4 mm long, with eddish, clavate, glandular hairs dorsally towards the apex; anthers 4-6 mm long; thecae mucronate at base where also seemingly lightly coherent, 2-3.5 mm long; tubules about equalling the thecae, 2-3 mm long, dehiscing by introrse clefts about 1/2 or more the length of the tubule; stigma truncate. Berry blue.
Distribution and Ecology - Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador; mangrove swamps to premontane (rain or moist) forest at sea level to 1600 m altitude. Cultivated: ABG, E, NCSC, NY, UC.
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Discussion
Uses: used as a cure
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Common Names
aengue mishito, aengue mishito