Cavendishia micayensis A.C.Sm.

  • Family

    Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Cavendishia micayensis A.C.Sm.

  • Primary Citation

    J. Arnold Arbor. 27: 114. 1946

  • Common Names

    flor de quinde, chaquilulo

  • Description

    Description: Terrestrial or epiphytic shrub to 2 m tall; stem glabrate; twigs complanate, hispid with pale tan hairs ca. 1 mm long; vegetative bracts coriaceous, often persistent, striate, reddish-brown, oblong, to 2.5 cm long. Leaves thickly coriaceous, elliptic, lance-elliptic, narrowly oblong-elliptic, or oblanceolate, (7-)10-25(-30) x 3-10(-15.5) cm, base obtuse or cuneate, apex short-acuminate often abruptly, margin slightly revolute, glabrous above but moderately to densely hispid beneath with hairs ca. 1 mm long; 3-7-plinerved, midrib impressed above and conspicuously raised beneath, lateral nerves arising at or 1-4 cm above base, plane to impressed above but raised beneath, reticulate veinlets slightly raised on both surfaces; petiole 8-15 mm long, hispid. Inflorescence cylindric, ca. 25-50-flowered, surrounded at base by numerous, subcoriaceous, striate, often ciliate, ovate to oblong-obovate bracts to 2 cm long; rachis glabrous or pilose at the conspicuously thickened nodes, 4-6(-10) cm long; floral bracts: those of proximal 1/5-1/3 of the inflorescence subtending sterile nodes, moderately spaced, completely glabrous, glabrous but ciliate, pilose dorsally, or densely pilose dorsally and weakly pilose ventrally, those of distal 4/5-2/3 subtending fertile nodes, membranous, striate, glabrous, oblong-obovte, 25-30 x 10-13 mm, apex rounded and emarginate, distal 2-3 mm of lamina often reflexed at anthesis, densely but inconspicuously and deciduosly glandular-fimbriate dorsally, wine-red to carmen often white basally; pedicel 0-1.3 mm long; bracteoles usually lacking but in one population oblong, 4-10 x 1-2 mm, ciliate and marginally glandular-fimbriate. Flowers with calyx (10-)13-16(-20) mm long, glabrous to densely pilose, usually glandular-fimbriate; hypanthium barrel-shaped, 2.5-4 mm long, basally truncate; limb somewhat infundibuliform, (7-)10-15(-17) mm long; lobes narrowly triangular, acute, 3-6(-8) mm long, margin glandular-fimbriate, usually ciliate; sinuses obtuse; corolla cylindric, (20-)30-37 mm long, glabrous, the lobes deltate to ca. 3 mm long; stamen alternately 9-16.5 mm and 11-18 mm long; filaments glabrous or marginally pilose medially, alternately 1-3.5 mm and 3-6.5 mm long; anthers alternately 9-15.2 mm and 8-11.2 mm long; thecae 3-5 mm long; tubules dehiscing by short oval oblique pores 0.5-1 mm long; style to 40 mm long. Berry ca. 15 mm diam.

    Distribution: Colombia and Ecuador; tropical moist and wet forest to premontane wet forest at 450-2100 m altitude.

    Cultivated: ABG, NCSC, NY.

    Illustration: Luteyn (1996), pl. 7.

    Type: Colombia. Cauca: Micay Valley, "La Gallera," 1400-2100 m, 29-30 Jun 1922 (fl), Killip 7691 (holotype: GH, photo NY neg. 9067; isotype: US).

  • Floras and Monographs

    Cavendishia micayensis A.C.Sm.: [Article] Luteyn, James L. 1983. Ericaceae--part I. Cavendishia. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 35: 1-290.