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(Last Modified On 7/23/2013)
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(Last Modified On 7/23/2013)
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Species
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Disterigma utleyorurn Wilbur & Luteyn
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PlaceOfPublication
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Brittonia 29: 259. 1977.
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Note
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TYPE: Costa Rica, Wilbur 21706 (DUKE, holotype; CAS, CR, F, GH, LL, MICH, MO, NY, PMA, WIS, etc. isotypes).
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Description
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Epiphytic shrub 2-4.5 dm tall; branchlets subterete to terete, moderately to densely scurfy puberulent; internodes short and mostly l as long as the near- est leaf. Leaf blades oblong obovate, somewhat spatulate or rarely oblong ellip- tic, thick and fleshy, wrinkled when dried, apically obtuse to broadly rounded and often with a pointed apiculus 1-2 mm long, basally broadly cuneate to obtuse, (1.0-)1.5-2.5(-3.0) cm long, (0.7-)1-1.8 cm wide, entire and slightly revolute, both the surfaces minutely or even microscopically puberulent and also with amber colored strigillose trichomes ca. 0.1 mm long; venation with S prominently elevated veins radiating from the petiole; petioles 1-2(4) mm long, 1-1.2 mm wide, short puberulent. Inflorescences solitary flowers in the axils of the upper leaves, subsessile; pedicels 1-2 mm long, bracts 2, subopposite, broadly oblong to ovate, loosely clasping, minutely appressed puberulous, 1.5-2 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, fused below into a cupule 0.5-1 mm long. Flowers with the hypanthium cylindric, 2-3 mm long, pale green, finely and minutely puberulous; calyx rim 1-1.2 mm high, the lobes 4, erect, lanceolate to narrowly triangular, acute, 1.6-2.2 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide at base, minutely puberulous; corolla white, cylindrical or barrel-shaped to somewhat funnelform at maturity, glabrous to sparingly spieculate, the tube 4-5.5 mm long, 3.5-4 mm in diameter, the lobes 4, oblong elliptic, acute, 3.5-5 mm long, about 3 mm wide; stamens 8, ca. 5 mm long, just a little shorter than the corolla tube at anthesis, the filaments white, sparingly ciliate, 1.5-2.5 mm long, the anthers smooth, 2.5-3.5 mm long, the 2 thecae emptying into a single orange tubule 1.5-2.0 mm long which opens by a single, more or less terminal, obliquely introrse, circular pore; style glabrous, 4.8-5.3 mm long, 0.6-0.8 mm in diameter; stigma slightly bibbed. Berries re- portedly "translucent white."
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Habit
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shrub
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Distribution
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Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador.
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Note
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This species seemingly is always intimately associated with a large colony of ants which vigorously defend their home. The specimens seen by us formed a picket fence surrounding a large, moist ball of earth and vegetable debris a foot or so in diameter capped by a dense, mat-forming, acrocarpus moss. Details of the commensal relationship between ericad and insect are at present unknown.
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Specimen
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VERAGUAS: 5 mi W of Santa Fe on road past Escuela Agricola Alto Piedra on Pacific side of divide, 800-1200 m, Liesner 942 (MO).
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Tag
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Project Name
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