Themistoclesia smithiana (Standl.) Sleumer

  • Authority

    1941. Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 71: 392.

  • Family

    Ericaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Themistoclesia smithiana (Standl.) Sleumer

  • Description

    Species Description - Pendent to spreading, epiphytic shrublet mostly 2-3(-4.5)dm tall; stems terete, slender, brown or reddish-brown to grayish when dry, densely to moderately pilosulose with hyaline trichomes 0.2-0.5 mm long, maturing to glabrate. Leaves thickly coriaceous, distichous, concave, lanceolate, (7-)10-15(-18) x (3-)6-8 mm, basally acute to rounded, apically acute to acuminate, entire, inconspicuously but copiously pilosulose above when young becoming glabrate, the trichomes slender, spreading, ca. 0.2 mm long, beneath glabrous except for reddish-brown, minute, glandular trichomes 0.1 mm long or less; venation obscure above except the midvein sunken above and completely obscured beneath; petiole terete, densely hispidulous, 0.5-1.5 mm long. Inflorescences of axillary, solitary flowers, bracts several, basal; floral bract ovate, pilosulose, ca. 0.8 mm long; pedicel terete, pilosulose, 1-1.2 mm long; bracteoles linear to linear oblong, reddish-brown, pilosulose, 0.4-0.6 mm long. Flowers with the calyx copiously pilosulose with hyaline trichomes 0.3-0.6 mm long; hypanthium obconic, terete, ca. 2.5 mm long at anthesis; limb ca. 0.7 mm long; lobes triangular, acute, 1.2-1.5 mm long; corolla pale yellow to pale greenish-white or white, terete or obscurely 5-lobed, broadly ovoid, abruptly narrowed at the throat, 3-3.5 mm long and 2.5-3 mm in diam. near the base, 0.8-1.0 mm in diam. at the throat, glabrous for the basal 4/5, pilosulose distally, the lobes linear oblong, 0.5-0.8 mm long, erect or weakly flaring; stamens 10, equal, ca. 2.5 mm long or about as long as the corolla tube; filaments slender, terete, glabrous, attached medially to the back of the thecae; anther ca. 1.5 mm long including the tubules; thecae smooth, 0.6-0.8 mm long, straight; tubules 0.8-1 mm long and dehiscing by an introrse cleft ca. 0.6 mm long; style ca. 3 mm long. Berry inconspicuously angled, 5-7 mm long and ca. 4 mm in diam., bluish.

    Distribution and Ecology - Costa Rica and Panama.