Gaultheria myrtilloides Cham. & Schltdl.
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Description
Description: Thin-stemmed, apparently rhizomatous shrub to subshrub to ca. 0.5 m tall; mature stems terete, striate, puberulent (or not) with white hairs and also densely hirsute with basally swollen, ferruginous, straight, eglandular hairs to 5 mm long, glabrate; bark cracking longitudinally, brownish; twigs subterete to bluntly angled, puberulent and densely strigose to hirsute; buds ovate, scales glabrous. Leaves thin-coriaceous, ovate to elliptic, (0.6-)1.2-2.5 x (0.3-) 0.5-1.5 cm, base rounded or obtuse, apex short-acuminate but not mucronate, flat but margin slightly revolute, obscurely and minutely serrate, glabrous or sparsely hirsute (minutely papillose) above, hirsute to somewhat strigose beneath with basally swollen, ferruginous, eglandular hairs to 2 mm long; midrib plane to slightly raised above, raised and conspicuous beneath, lateral nerves (2-3 per side) raised and conspicuous above and beneath, reticulate veinlets raised and conspicuous above and slightly raised to plane and ± obscure beneath; petiole subterete, flattened and slightly canaliculate above, 1.5-4 mm long, glabrous to puberulent above, hirsute beneath. Inflorescence with flowers solitary in axils of normal or slightly reduced leaves; pedicels terete, 2-3.5 mm long, much shorter than subtending leaves, densely puberulent and also densely hirsute with eglandular, straight or crisped hairs to 2-3 mm long; bracteoles 2, basal, ovate, 1.5-2 x 1-1.5 mm, acute, glabrous but ciliolate; floral bract similar to bracteoles. Flowers with calyx 2.5-4 mm long, hirsute with reddish to ferruginous, eglandular hairs 2-3 mm long, lobes ovate, 2.3-3.5 x 1.2-1.5 mm, long-acuminate, ciliate, densely short-white-puberulent within; corolla cylindric-campanulate, broadest distally, not noticeably constricted at throat, 3-3.5 x ca. 3 mm, white when fresh, glabrous without, densely hort-sericeous around throat within, lobes oblong, obtuse; stamens 1.8-2.4 mm long; filaments 1.2-1.6 mm long, glabrous; anthers 1-1.2 mm long, inconspicuously bifid to short-awned apically; ovary glabrous or densely short-pilose; style ca. 2 mm long, glabrous. Fruiting calyx globose, 4-6 mm diam., hirsute.
Distribution: Endemic to Brazil (Minas Gerais). I have no information about the habitat in which this species occurs. Flowering and fruiting Nov to Apr. Rare and endangered.
Type: Brazil. Minas Gerais: Itacolumi, Sellow 1302 (holotype, B, destroyed, photo F neg. 4590; isotypes, none seen).
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Floras and Monographs
Gaultheria myrtilloides Cham. & Schltdl.: [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.
