Aphelandra mildbraediana Leonard

Aphelandra mildbraediana Leonard

Aphelandra mildbraediana Leonard, Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. 31:218. 1953.

Shrubs or small trees to 3 m high; stems erect or ascending, the tips quadrangular, densely whitishstrigose, the older portions of the stems terete, glabrous, gray; leaf blades oblong-elliptic to lanceolate, 8–13 cm long, 2–4 cm wide, acute to acuminate, the tip blunt and often curved, gradually narrowed at base, subcoriaceous, entire or shallowly crenate, the upper surface green, nitid, glabrous to sparingly strigillose, the costa and lateral veins flat or slightly raised, the lower surface drying olivaceous, strigillose, the costa and veins more conspicuous than above; petioles to 2 cm long, strigose; flowers borne in terminal, solitary (occasionally 3), subsessile spikes to 5 cm long and 15 mm broad, the rachis white-cottony; bracts closely imbricate, rhombic-ovate, entire, 9 mm long and 6 mm wide at 2.5 mm above base, acute to obtuse, white-cottony at base, otherwise glabrous to puberulous, ciliate, the costa rather prominent, the 4 or 5 pairs of lateral nerves parallel and becoming obscure beyond middle of bract, ocelli 1–3, elliptic, about 0.5 mm long, brown, nitid, varnished; bractlets obliquely lanceolate, subfalcate, 8 mm long, carinate, 1–1.5 mm wide, the keel densely white-pubescent, the margins glabrous, subhyaline, delicately striate-nerved; calyx 11–12 mm long, the posterior segment 3.5 mm wide, the anterior pair 3 mm wide, the lateral pair 2.5 mm wide, all oblong-ovate, finely pubescent to glabrate, striate-nerved, acute, ciliate toward tip; corolla 6–7 cm long, red, papillose, the tube about 4 mm broad at base, contracted to 3 mm at tip of ovary, thence gradually enlarged to a cylindric subventricose throat 7 or 8 mm broad, the upper lip erect, narrowly ovate, 15 mm long and 8 mm wide, bilobed at apex, the lobes triangular-ovate, 7 mm long, 4 mm wide at base, acuminate, the tips outwardly curved, the middle lobe of the lower lip elliptic, spreading, 9.5 mm wide, narrowed at base, subcucullate and apiculate at tip, the lateral lobes about 5 mm long, the posterior edge adnate to lower part of upper lip, the free portions triangular-ovate, 1.5 mm long, slightly over 1 mm wide, obtuse; stamens exserted about 4 mm beyond the mouth of the corolla tube; anthers 7 mm long, 1,5 mm wide, apiculate at each end, dorsally tomentose; ovary glabrous; mature capsules not seen.

TYPE.—H. H. Smitk 1414 (holotype US, isotypes GH, K, MO, NY, P, PH, S), Colombia, Magdalena, ravine above Las Nubes, at Alto de Cielo, 1500 m alt, 18 Dec 1898.

DISTRIBUTION.—In the departments of Magdalena and Norte de Santander, Colombia at elevations above 1500 meters altitude. COLOMBIA. MAGDALENA: San Lorenzo mountains, vicinity of Santa Marta, 15 Dec 1922, Viereck s.n. (US); on wooded mountain slope at Casa Blanca, 1200 m alt, 25 Jul 1926, Schultze 695 (B, destroyed, F photo 8716); above Minca, Las Cumbres, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, 2000 m alt, 26 Feb 1949, Hawkes 587 (K, US). NORTE DE SANTANDER: Ocaña, May 1846–52, Schlim 537 (FI, K, P); Ocafia, 1878, Kalbreyer 611 (K).

Aphelandra mildbraediana là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Ô rô. Loài này được Leonard mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1953.