Arachnothryx gracilis (Hemsl.) Borhidi

Rondeletia gracilis Hemsl. Diag. PI. Nov. 53. 1880
Shrub, the branches slender or stout, terete or subangulate, grayish-brown, whitish-tomentose when young but soon glabrate; stipules triangular-cuspidate, 3-5 mm. long, erect, subpersistent, thick, brown, glabrate; leaves opposite, the petioles stout, 0.3-5.5 cm. long, tomentulose or glabrate, the blades lance-elliptic to broadly elliptic-oval, 4.5-25 cm. long, 2-12 cm. wide, obtuse to acuminate at the base, acute or acuminate at the apex, membranaceous, green above and glabrous, slightly paler beneath, tomentulose when young but soon glabrous, the costa stout and prominent, the lateral veins 6-11 on each side, slender, arcuate, ascending at an acute angle; inflorescence terminal, the flowers sessile or subsessile in dense cymes, these arranged in a short-pedunculate spikelike panicle 10-25 cm. long, the bractlets linear, brown; hypanthium fulvous-tomentose; calyx-lobes 4, triangular, acute or acuminate, erect, shorter than the hypanthium, unequal; corolla-tube slender, 6-7 mm. long, thinly floccose-tomentulose outside, glabrous in the throat, the 4 lobes rounded, undulate, about 1.5 mm. long, spreading; anthers and style included; capsule subglobose, about 1.5 mm. in diameter, costate; seeds minute, brown.
Type locality: Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, at an altitude of 1080 meters. Distribution: Guatemala and Honduras.