Gaultheria schultesii Camp
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Description
Description: Erect, much-branched shrub, 0.2-1.5 m tall; mature stems terete, smooth, glabrous; bark grayish-brown, thin, exfoliating; twigs subterete, striate, weakly puberulent and also usually weakly to densely hirsute with straight or crisped, eglandular or gland-tipped, ascending or spreading hairs to 1 mm long, glabrate; buds ovate to fusiform, scales densely short-pilose dorsally and densely ciliate. Leaves subcoriaceous, oblong-elliptic to narrowly ovate, rarely subrotund, 1.5-3.5(-4) x (0.7-)1-1.8 cm, base obtuse to rounded or broadly cuneate, apex acute, rarely rounded, apex itself a short, blunt, glandular mucro, margin serrate with each tooth terminating in a tiny glandular hair, essentually glabrous to very finely puberulent over entire surface or rarely sparsely strigose above, glabrous beneath but usually punctate or bearing tiny, basally swollen, strigulose, glandular hairs ca. 0.1 mm long; midrib impressed above, lateral nerves (3-5 per side) slightly impressed but obscure above, reticulate veinlets slightly raised but obscure above, all veins conspicuous and slightly raised beneath with veinlets noticeably reticulate; petiole subterete, canaliculate above, rugose, 2-5 mm long, puberulent above, glabrate. Inflorescence with flowers solitary in axils of upper leaves (in hybrids with G. erecta, short racemes with ca. 3 flowers mixed with solitary flowers on same branch); pedicels subterete, 4-10 mm long, short-pilose with white hairs, also weakly to moderately hirsute with thin, straight to crisped, elgandular to minutely gland-tipped, ferruginous hairs; bracteoles 3-10, scattered over length of pedicel, spreading, somewhat cochleariform, striate, ovate to obovate, 3-5 x 2-2.8 mm, acute, dorsally glabrous, ventrally glabrous to sparsely puberulent, ciliate; floral bract indistinguishable from bracteoles. Flowers with calyx 4-4.3 mm long, glabrous or very rarely puberulent, lobes broadly ovate, 2.5-3.5 x 2-2.8 mm, acuminate, ciliate, puberulent within; corolla urceolate, terete, 5.5-7.8 x 5-6.5 mm, externally white short-pilose and also strigose with straight or crisped, eglandular to gland-tipped, ferruginous hairs, internally densely short-pilose, white to pinkish when fresh, lobes ovate, ca. 1 mm long, obtuse; stamens 4.8-6 mm long; filaments 3-5 mm long, densely short-pilose; anther 2-2.5 mm long, awns conspicuous; ovary densely short-pilose, sometimes canescent; style to 6 mm long, short-pilose at base. Fruiting calyx globose, 9-10 mm diam., glabrous, dark blue-black.
Distribution: Endemic to Oaxaca, Mexico where it is locally common and occurring in open, disturbed sites sometimes forming thickets in Quercus-Pinus forest at elevations of 2500-2923 m. Flowering Mar to Oct and fruiting Sep to Mar.
Type: Mexico. Oaxaca: Cerro Cuasimulco, nr. San Pedro Yolox, 2600-2700 m, 24 Jun 1939 (fl), Schultes 678 (holotype, NY, photo Corcoran neg. 46; isotype, GH).
Common names: Tzinutpe (Mije Indian, Oaxaca) and capulincillo del diablo (Spanish, Oaxaca) (cf Schultes, 1941)
Uses: The fruits are used as food by the Chinantee and Mije Indians in Oaxaca (Schultes, 1941). Lawton 799 (NY) states that the flowers were visited by hummingbirds.
Cultivated: Private garden of A. P. Dome.
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Floras and Monographs
Gaultheria schultesii Camp: [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.
