Macleania cordifolia Benth.
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Description
Description: Terrestrial shrub, often arising from a lignotuber; stem terete, glabrous, pale brown; twigs terete to subterete, striate to ribbed, glabrous. Leaves coriaceous, ovate, elliptic-ovate, or oblong-ovate, (3-)4-10(-20) x 2-5(-9.5) cm, base cordate to subcordate, apex obtuse or subacute to nearly rounded, margin entire and slightly thickened, glabrous but sparsely to conspicuously punctate usually above; 5-7-plinerved from near the base, midrib thickened and slightly raised in the proximal 1 cm then distally plane to slightly impressed above, lateral nerves plane to slightly impressed above and raised beneath, reticulate veinlets slightly raised on both surfaces; petiole subterete, broadly canaliculate above, rugose, 2-5 mm long, glabrous or short-pilose and glabrate. Inflorescence axillary, short-racemose, 4-10-flowered; rachis subterete, coarsely angled, congested, rugose, 0.5-1 cm long (sometimes elongating to 2 cm in fruit), glabrous; floral bract ovate, acute to acuminate, 1.5-3 mm long, glabrous but marginally glandular-fimbriate; pedicel subterete, striate, rugose, 8-18 mm long, glabrous; bracteoles nearly basal, similar to floral bract but to 2 mm long, also often provided at base dorsally with 1-2 circular to oblong, concave, blackish, nectariferous glands. Flowers with calyx 5.5-11 mm long; hypanthium obprismatic, narrowly to broadly winged to sinuses, 3-8 mm long, glabrous; limb campanulate, 2.5-3 mm long; lobes apiculate, less than 1 mm long; corolla cylindric to cylindric-urceolate, pentagonal, narrowed towards throat, 14-25 mm long and 4-10 mm diam., glabrous without but the throat densely white pilose within, the lobes oblong-ovate, acute, ca. 2 mm long; stamen 9-11 mm long; filaments connate into a tube, ca. 2-2.5 mm long, glabrous or puberulent; anthers 7-9 mm long; thecae 3.5-6 mm long; tubules fused into one, 4-5 mm long, dehiscing by clefts 2-2.5 mm long; style subequalling the corolla or exserted, glabrous. Immature berry to 12 mm diam.
Distribution: Endemic to Ecuador; cloud forest at (300-)1800-3356 m altitude.
Type: Type. Ecuador. Pichincha: Hda. de Iraví, nr village of Perucho, Hartweg 1218 (holotype, K-Herb. Benth., photo NY neg. 10618; isotypes, B?, BREM, CGE, FI, G, K-Herb. Hook., NY, OXF, P, W). In 1931 A. C. Smith annotated the sheet in the Herbarium Hookerianum as "TYPE" (=holotype of current meaning) and the sheet in the Herbarium Benthamianum as "TYPE COLL." (=isotype). As Bentham was the author of the species, I designated the specimen in his herbarium (i.e., Herbarium Benthamianum) as holotype.
Illustration: Eaton, Addisonia 18: 47, plate 600. 1934.
Uses: fruits edible. Visited by hummingbirds Adelomyia melanogenys, Colibri thalassinus, and Lesbianuna sp. (fide Bleiweiss 1102, 1105).
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Floras and Monographs
Macleania cordifolia Benth.: [Article] 1846. Pl. Hartw. 223.
