Aphelandra albadenia Rusby
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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.
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Family
Acanthaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Minutely and sparsely puberulent-strigose with whitish hairs, but the entire plant of a deep-green color and densely leafy. Stem subterete, the internodes short. Leaves 1.5 to 3 dm. long, 3 to 6 cm. wide, long-acuminate at both ends, especially at the base, which tapers into a short margined petiole; entire or obscurely sinuate-crenate, very thin, deep given on both sides, the inconspicuous venation very slender, the secondaries 12 to 15 on a side, falcately ascending. Spikes peduncled in the upper axils, about 1 dm. long, !2 cm. wide, lanceolate, the scales 2 cm. long, 4 to 5 mm. wide, oblong, acute, ciliate, green, thin. Sepals long-pilose, the largest 2 cm. long, narrowly lanceolate, longacuminate, the others a little shorter, lance-linear with longattenuate summit. Corolla nearly 5 cm. long, pubescent, yellow, the erect upper lip 1.5 cm. long, the lower a little longer, spreading, nearly equally 3-lobed, the lobes very short, rounded at the summit. Stamens nearly equaling the upper lip, the filaments attached at the base of the corolla, dilated at the base, two of them attached together. Anthers of the two longer stamens muticous at the base, the others caudate, the tails ending in white, curved, sac-like glands. Style terminating in a slender, divergent white tip.
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Discussion
This very peculiar species was collected by myself at Reyes, 1,000 feet, in June, 1886, and distributed as "Aphelandra sp. (?)." It was again collected at the cataracts of the Bopi River, 1,800 feet, O. E. White, August 8, 1921 {no. 442). It is quite distinct from every other species by its peculiar foliage and especially in its glandular-caudate stamens, in allusion to which it is named.