Bejaria resinosa Mutis ex L.f.

  • Family

    Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Bejaria resinosa Mutis ex L.f.

  • Primary Citation

    Suppl. Pl. 246. 1781

  • Common Names

    angucha, azalea del monte, matamosca, payana, pegamosca, pegapega, pulunrosa, purun rosa, pega-pega, carbonero, pegajosa, pegamosco, angujo, angucho, payama

  • Description

    Description: Shrub or small tree, 0.25-6 m tall; bark fissured, glabrous, tomentose, hispid, or glandular-hispid, dark brown or gray; twigs subterete, brown or gray, often hispid (glandular-hispid). Leaves coriaceous, flat, revolute, or rarely longitudinally curled, usually ovate to elliptic, sometimes narrowly elliptic to narrowly ovate (obovate, orbicular or cordiform), (0.7-)1-2.5 x 0.3-1.6 cm, base obtuse to truncate (cuneate or cordate), apex acute to acuminate (obtuse or rounded), usually bluntly mucronate, margin entire, occasionally ciliate (glandular ciliate), both surfaces usually glabrous, sometimes tomentose or hispid (glandular-hispid), midvein usually hispid (glabrous, tomentose, or glandular-hispid). Inflorescence terminal, rarely axillary, racemose, (3-)5-12(-22)-flowered; rachis 1-3.6 cm long and 13-24 mm diam., brown or dark brown, tomentose and usually hispid (glandular-hispid); pedicels ascending, 10-18 mm long and 0.6-1.6 mm diam., usually hispid, occasionally glandular-hispid, glabrous or tomentose; bracteoles usually inserted on basal 1/2 of pedicel (often at the very base), narrowly ovate to narrowly obovate or oblong, sometimes narrowly elliptic to elliptic, flat or often involute, 1.9-6.6 x 0.4-2.1 mm, base truncate, apex obtuse to acute to acuminate, margin usually ciliate, occasionally glandular-ciliate, both surfaces glabrous or tomentose; floral bracts narrowly ovate to ovate or elliptic (narrowly obovate), flat, revolute, involute, or longitudinally-curled, 2.3-12.5 x 0.8-2.5 mm, base cuneate, apex acute to acuminate, margin entire, adaxial surface glabrous to tomentose, sometimes hispid or glandular-hispid, abaxial surface usually hispid, sometimes glabrous or tomentose (glandular-hispid). Flowers 7-merous; calyx 3.6-9 mm long; tube 1-4 mm long and 2.5-6.5 mm diam., brown or reddish-brown, glabrous, tomentose, hispid, or glandular-hispid; lobes ovate, occasionally narrowly ovate or elliptic (deltoid), 2.8-5.9(-7.5) x 1.5-4.9 mm, longest lobe 3.8-7.5 mm, apex acute to obtuse, occasionally acuminate (caudate or mucronate), margin entire, ciliolate or ciliate, occasionally glandular-ciliate, abaxial surface glabrous, tomentose, hispid, or glandular-hispid; corolla tubular or fusiform, red to purple, occasionally pink or white, petals often undulate, narrowly obovate, (16.5-)20-40 x 4-10 mm, margin entire or distally ciliate, distally slightly to densely tomentose; stamens subequal to corolla or slightly exserted, (16-)19-47 mm long; filaments tomentose; anthers 1.6-3.7 mm long and 0.8-1.9 mm diam., glabrous; ovary glabrous; style exserted, 23-56 mm long; stigma capitate. Capsules depressed globose, 5.5-9 mm long and 9.2-11 mm diam., brown, exocarp not separating from the valves; seeds 1.2-1.6 mm long, 0.3-0.7 mm diam.

    Distribution: From Páramo de Tamá, Venezuela to southern Colombia, and from Páramo de Castillo, Ecuador to Cerro de Calla-Calla, Peru, in the shrub páramos and lower páramos, at (1750-)2500-3700 m. It is represented by only a single collection from the northern part of Ecuador. It flowers and bears fruit throughout the year, Melampy (1987) found that the species flowers throughout the year but there is a peak of flowering from December to February in Boyacá, Colombia.

    Local Names: Venezuela: pegajosa (Táchira). Colombia: pegamosca or pegamosco, matamosca, carbonero, azalea del monte, and pegapega (Cundinamarca), angucha, angucho, and angujo (Cauca, Cundinamarca, and Valle). Ecuador: payama, payana (Azuay, El Oro, and Loja); Peru: pegapega (Cajamarca) and purun rosa (La Libertad).

    Uses: It is used in Colombia (Cundinamarca) for fly paper (Haught 5633), hence the names matamosca and pegamosca (fly killer and fly sticker). In Ecuador (Azuay) and Peru (Cajamarca) it is used medicinally: in Ecuador 'for wounds [and], sprains cook the leaves and put the crude crushed leaves over the wound, also used as a purgative... for heart attacks cook the flowers and drink the infusion' (Steyermark 53329), whereas in Peru it is 'considered the strongest medicine for respiratory ailments. Cooked and mixed with miel de palo' (Davis & Turner 703).

    Cultivated: NCSC.

    Illustrations: Clemants (1995), figs. 14C-D and 15A-H.

    Type: Colombia. Without locality or date, Mutis 55 (lectotype: LINN, n.v., photo IDC Linnaean herbarium 613.1; isolectotypes: S, without collection number, n.v., photo IDC 198: I. 1.). Mansfeld and Sleumer (1935) designated Mutis 4640 (B, n.v., destroyed, MA, US) as the type, because it matched a plate by Mutis at MA, but they did not validly designate a lectotype. They cited both the MA and B specimens, without selecting one as the lectotype. Clemants (1995) chose the LINN specimen as the lectotype, because Linné f. probably had this specimen in his possession when he published the name.

    Source: http://www.nybg.org/bsci/res/lut2/

  • Floras and Monographs

    Bejaria resinosa Mutis ex L.f.: [Article] 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.