Calathea bracteosa Rusby

  • Authority

    Rusby, Henry H. 1927. Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Plants Collected on the Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Valley 1921-1922. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 7: 205-387.

  • Family

    Marantaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Calathea bracteosa Rusby

  • Description

    Species Description - (EUCALATHEA.) Glabrous, the stems tall, leafy. Petiole (but one leaf seen) nearly a meter long, stout, the base broadly dilated and complanate to serve as a sheath from which the peduncle emerges. Blade 7 dm. long, 3 dm. wide, oval, with rounded base and summit, thin. Peduncles 2 in the axil of the leaf, between them arising a stout rachis 8 cm. long, bearing at its summit an aphyllous sheath similar to the leaf-sheath, and giving origin to 3 peduncles similar to those below, but shorter, and a continuation of the rachis, (the remainder of which has been broken off). Peduncles flabellately arranged, slender, 1 to 2 dm. long, subtended by coriaceous bracts about half the length of the peduncles. Spikes compressed, 6 to 12 cm. long, about 3 cm. wide, composed of distichous, densely imbricated coriaceous bracts, about 1.5 cm. long and of greater breadth, with broadly rounded or subtruncate summit. Flowers light-purple, sessile in the bracts, subtended by membranaceous keeled bractlets. Ovary oblong, a little wider at the truncate summit, densely setaceouspilose at the base. Sepals about 1 cm. long, one a little wider, oblong with rounded summit, hyaline, finely very many-nerved. Corolla-tube nearly 3 cm. long, very slender, the rest of the flower 1 cm. long, the corolla-lobes subequal, hyaline, 13- or 15-nerved, broadly oval. Petaloid filaments about two-thirds the length of the petals, a short recurved vermiform appendage on one side. Lip a little longer than the latter, subrotund, entire, very thin. Exserted portion of style broadly margined, complanate, the summit involute, the terminal portion small. Capsule 1 cm. long, the three seeds 6 mm. long, light-brown, lightly and coarsely tuberculate.

  • Distribution

    San Buena Ventura, 1,000 feet, M. Cardenas, November 26, 1921 (no. 1858).

    Bolivia South America|