Gesneria decapleura Urb.

Gesneria decapleura Urban

Gesneria decapleura Urban, Symb. Ant. 7:542, 1913.—Urb., Symb. Ant. 8:647, 1921.

Shrubs or trees: stems woody, erect, to 2 m tall, to 1 cm in diameter, bark rugose, white-gray to brown, glabrescent; branches smooth, gray to white or reddish, nodes slightly swollen; buds densely covered with long sordid white articulate trichomes.

Leaves alternate or approximate: petioles flattened to subsulcate, 2–7 mm long, 1–3 mm wide, green to brown, pilose to glabrescent; blades narrowly obtrullate to oblong, occasionally falcate, 5.4–22.2 cm long, 1.3–8.6 cm wide, membranous, plane, base cuneate, margin entire near the base, becoming grossly serrate to lobulate toward the acute or acuminate apex, adaxial surface green, dull, pilose to glabrescent, veins covered with glandular or nonglandular trichomes, abaxial surface lighter green, pilose with articulate trichomes at least on the prominent veins.

Inflorescences from the axils of often reduced leaves, 1– to ∞-flowered: peduncles terete, 2.6–8.0 cm long, 1 mm in diameter, reddish becoming lighter with age, pilose; bracts 2, linear-lanceolate, 3–6 mm long, less than 1 mm wide, pilose, trichomes with reddish to colorless articulations; pedicels terete, 0.8–1.8 cm long, 1 mm in diameter, pilose, trichomes with reddish articulations becoming lighter with age; floral tube broadly turbinate, 2–4 mm long, 3–5 mm wide, densely pilose with reddish, articulate trichomes; calyx lobes 5, spreading, each lobe lanceolate, 5–8 mm long, 2.0–3.5 mm wide at the base, reddish and pilose with appressed trichomes outside and inside, 3– or 5-nerved or nerves obscure; corolla tubular, curved, 1.8–2.5 cm long, 4–6 mm in diameter at the gibbous base, narrowing to 3–5 mm above the base, 0.8–1.1 cm in diameter at the ventricose middle, 0.7–1.0 cm in diameter at the oblique mouth, red to orange, densely pilose outside, inside reddish and glabrescent, limb 5-lobed, each lobe semiorbiculate with margins erose to denticulate and ciliate with glandular trichomes, upper lobes 3–4 mm long, 3–4 mm wide, connate for 1–2 mm, lateral and basal lobes 2.0–3.5 mm long, 3.0–3.5 mm wide; stamens 4, adnate to the base of the corolla tube for 1 mm, exserted to about 5 mm, filaments linear, curved, 2.2–2.6 cm long, about 1 mm in diameter, yellow to red, puberulent with glandular trichomes toward the base, glabrescent above, anthers oblong, 1.0–1.5 mm long, 1 mm wide, coherent in 2 pairs by their apices at anthesis, becoming free, staminode 3 mm long, lacking fertile anther; ovary inferior, apex densely pilose with reddish trichomes, disc annular, yellow with glandular trichomes, style linear, curved, 2.4–3.0 cm long, less than 1 mm in diameter, reddish, puberulent with glandular trichomes to glabrescent above, stigma capitate, stomatomorphic.

Capsule broadly turbinate, 5–6 mm long, 5–7 mm wide, reddish to gray-brown, apex slightly erumpent, dehiscing into 2–4 valves, densely pilose to glabrescent, costae 10, prominent; seeds fusiform, twisted, ca 0.8 mm long, 0.25 mm wide, reddish-brown.

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Ad Las Cañitas, Dominican Republic, M. Fuertes 1860 (A, lectotype, Figure 49).

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY.—Gesneria decapleura is apparently endemic to Hispaniola in the central range of mountains, occurring in the northwest in the Massif du Nord in Haiti and to the southeast in the Cordillera Central in central Dominican Republic (Figure 50), in wet forests on limestone, from 150–1400 m elevation. Gesneria decapleura

has been collected in flower during April, June, July, and August. Possible hummingbird pollinators for this species might be Anthracothorax dominicus and Chlorostilbon swainsonii, whose bills are 2.4 cm and 1.9 cm long, respectively.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—HAITI. DÉPARTMENT DU NORD: Massif du Nord, St. Louis du Nord, mountain slope at Rivière Nambiu, ca 150 m, 14 April 1925, E. Ekman H3809 (A, C, EHH, IJ, K, NY, S, US); Massif du Nord, St. Louis du Nord, top of Morne Chavary, ca 900 m, 25 August 1925, E. Ekman H4719 (S). DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. AZUA PROVINCE: Cordillera Central, Loma Nalga de Maco, headwaters of Arroyo del Valle, 1300–1400 m, 10 June 1926, E. Ekman H6332 (EHH, F, G, GH, IJ, S, US); ad Las Cañitas, 1300 m, July 1912, M. Fuertes 1860 (A, lectotype of Gesneria decapleura Urban); ad Las Cañitas, 1300 m, July 1912, M. Fuertes 1925 (A, NY, P).