Renealmia dressleri Maas

Authority

Maas, Paulus J. M. 1977. Renealmia (Zingiberaceae--Zingiberoideae), Costoideae (Additions) (Zingiberaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 18: 1-218. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family

Zingiberaceae

Scientific Name

Renealmia dressleri Maas

Type

TYPE. Maas & Dressier 675 (holotype, U;isotypes, MO, US), La Eneida, Cerro Jefe Region, prov. Panama, Panama, 750 m.

Description

Description - Plants 0.75-2 m tall. Rhizomes 6-10 mm thick, sometimes supported on slender stilt-roots. Sheaths striate, ca 10 mm wide, to 15 mm at the base of the plant, densely covered with sessile, furcate to plurifurcate hairs (0.01-0.03 mm wide.) Ligule ca 1 mm long. Petiole absent. Lamina narrowly elliptic, gradually narrowed towards the apex or acuminate (acumen to 15 mm long), cuneate at the strongly sheathing base, 35-80 cm long, 3.5-11 cm wide (the uppermost subtending the inflorescence 13 X 0.5 cm), upper side glabrous, lower side sparsely to rather densely covered with compass-needle hairs (0.01-0.05 mm wide). Inflorescence a terminal thyrse (5-)10-35 cm long and 2-4 cm wide, or occasionally a basal thyrse 10-25 cm long with a scape 15-30 cm tall, beset with sheaths up to 4-8 cm long and ca 1 cm wide, rhachis green, 1-3 mm thick, cincinni 3-7-flowered. Indument of inflorescence: sheaths, rhachis, bracts, peduncles, bracteoles, pedicels, calyx, corolla, ovary, and capsule densely to rather densely covered with sessile, furcate to plurifurcate hairs (0.01-0.05 mm wide). Bracts (pale) green to white, pale brown when dry, deciduous at length, narrowly triangular to triangular, 10-35 mm long, 5-15 mm wide. Peduncles green, 3-5 mm long. Bracteole 6-11 mm long. Pedicels green, 5-10 mm long. Calyx red to orange-red, tubular, becoming urceolate and fleshy with age, 5-8 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, the lobes deltate to shallowly triangular-ovate, 1-3 mm long, 2-3 mm wide. Corolla pale yellow to creamy-white, 11-12 mm long, the tube ca 6 mm long, the lobes 5-6 mm long, the dorsal one 4 mm wide, the two lateral ones 3 mm wide. Labellum creamy white with a yellow central part, 7 mm long and 8 mm wide when spread out, basal part opposite anther densely covered with simple hairs (ca 0.3 mm long), the limb horizontally spreading, ca 4 mm long, 8 mm wide, lateral lobes rounded, ca 4 mm long, 3 mm wide, middle lobe with two broadly ovate lobules ca 1.5 mm long, basal claw 3 mm long, 2 mm wide, lateral staminodes pink, ca 1 mm long, 0.3 mm wide. Anther red, 3-3.5 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, glabrous. Style 10-11 mm long. Nectarial glands partly surrounding the style base, 1.5 mm long. Ovary orange to yellow, globose to ellipsoid. Capsule red to reddish-orange, globose to ellipsoid, 4-8(-10) mm long, its wall 0.1-0.2 mm thick when dry (ca 0.5 mm in living material), 3-4-seeded, seeds 4 X 2.5-3 mm, aril orange.

Discussion

Renealmia dressleri (named after Dr. Robert Dressier who made possible all my field work in Panama) is characterized by its sessile, strongly sheathing leaves, its indument of compass-needle hairs on the lamina beneath (both characters also met with in the closely related R. concinna), a (mostly) terminal inflorescence and an orange-red to red calyx.

Distribution

Panama, Cerro Jefe Region, and probably Colombia, Choco; in forests, from 400-1400 m.

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