Gaultheria sclerophylla Cuatrec.

Description

Description: Erect shrub 0.2-1 m tall; mature stems subterete, bluntly ridged, glabrous; bark thin, cracking longitudinally, grayish- to reddish-brown; twigs subterete, striate, ridged, glabrous to puberulent, or densely spreading to ascending hirsute with hairs to 3 mm long, sometimes also bearing scattered gland-tipped setae to 0.5 mm long, reddish-brown. Leaves thick-coriaceous, narrowly ovate, or elliptic to oblong, (2-)3.5-5(-6.5) x (1-)1.4-2.5(-3.4) cm, base rounded, rarely truncate, apex short-acuminate and sometimes bluntly mucronate, conspicuously bluntly serrate with each tooth terminating in a tiny (0.2-1 mm long) or elongate (to 2 mm long), often deciduous, gland-tipped seta, nitid, essentially glabrous or somewhat punctate beneath from persistent bases of tiny (0.2-0.8 mm long), gland-tipped setae scattered only along the midrib and veins, or also hirsute with hairs to 2 mm long, the lamina usually ± bullate and concave to revolute, bicolorous (i.e., leaves drying darker above than beneath); midrib, lateral nerves (3-4 per side), and reticulate veinlets of a lighter color than lamina when dry, plane or more commonly slightly raised above (impressed), conspicuously raised beneath; petiole subterete, shallowly canaliculate above, 2-3 mm long, glabrous or with few gland-tipped setae, reddish-brown. Inflorescence axillary, racemose, congested and barely exceeding the leaves at anthesis, ca. (11-)15-20-flowered; rachis subterete, complanate, angled, 3-5 cm long, densely white puberulent to short-pilose and sometimes also with few to many, scattered, gland-tipped setae to 0.4 mm long, surrounded at the base by a series of ovate, keeled, striate, mucronate, glabrous but ciliolate bracts to 4.3 mm long; pedicels terete, striate, 4-8 mm long but elongating to 10 mm after anthesis, pubescent as rachis; bracteoles located at base or along lower one-third of pedicel, striate, ovate to linear-ovate, 3-4.5 x 0.7-1 mm, acuminate, ± glabrous but marginally ciliolate and glandular-fimbriate; floral bract coriaceous, conspicuously striate, ± cochleariform, often caducous, ovate to oblanceolate, 5-7(-9) x 2.5-4.5 mm, acute, ± glabrous but marginally ciliolate and short glandular-fimbriate. Calyx (4-)4.5-5 mm long, lobes broadly ovate, (2.7-)3.5-4 x 2.2-2.5 mm, acuminate, glabrous or puberulent at tips within, ciliolate or marginally glandular-fimbriate proximally and ciliolate distally; corolla urceolate, terete or bluntly 5-angled, 5-7 x ca. 4 mm, glabrous (or short-pilose at base), red when fresh, lobes ovate, 1-1.5(-2) mm long, obtuse; stamens 4.7-5 mm long; filaments 3-4 mm long, glabrous; anthers 1.1-1.7 mm long, the awns short to very short; ovary densely short-pilose; style ca. 3-4 mm long, glabrous or puberulent. Fruiting calyx ca. 1 cm diam., blue-black.

Distribution: Found only at high-elevation habitats from western Venezuela to central Ecuador, in wet páramo, Polylepis-scrub, páramo thicket, and "pedregales" at elevations of (3250-)3500-4000 m elevation. Flowering and fruiting most frequently from Sep through Jan.

Type: Colombia. Tolima: Cordillera Central, between Ibagué and Tolima, Alto del Condor, páramo, 3300 m, 17 May 1932 (fl, fr), Cuatrecasas 2720 (holotype, MA, photo NY s.n.).

Key to the Varieties of Gaultheria sclerophylla: 1. Branchlets glabrous or at most puberulent; leaves glabrous beneath or merely short-glandular-setose; calyx lobes both ciliolate and glandular-fimbriate; Venezuela-S Colombia ................ var. sclerophylla 1. Branchlets densely spreading to ascending hirsute; leaves hirsute beneath as well as shortly glandular-setose; calyx lobes only ciliolate; Colombia/Ecuador border to C Ecuador ................ var. hirsuta