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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 8/6/2013)
 

Flora Data (Last Modified On 8/6/2013)
Species Columnea microcalyx Hanst.
PlaceOfPublication Linnaea 34: 408. 1865.
Note TYPE: Costa Rica, Wendland 910 (B, not seen, no longer extant) .
Synonym Columnea microcalyx var. macrophylla J. D. Smith, Bot. Gaz. (Crawfordsville) 31: 118. 1901. TYPE: Forests near Las Vueltas, Tucurrique, Costa Rica, Tonduz 12932 (US, isotype). Columnea tuerckheimii Sprague, Bull. Misc. Inform. 1912: 42. 1912. TYPE: Cubilquitz, Dept. Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, Tuerckheim in J. D. Smith 7640 (US, isotype). Columnea lutea J. D. Smith, Bot. Gaz. (Crawfordsville) 57: 425. 1914. TYPE: Cubilquitz, Dept. Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, Tuerckheim in J. D. Smith 7930 (US, holotype). Columnea localis Morton, Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 18: 1165. 1938. TYPE: Based on Columnea microcalyx var. macrophylla J. D. Smith, not C. inacrophylla Kuntze.
Description Epiphytic or rarely trailing woody-based herbs; stems pendent, slender, to 2 m long, ca. 1-3 mm in diam., branched, strigose hirsute with reddish or trans- parent hairs, becoming gray brown with age. Leaves subequal in a pair; ovate elliptic, 1.2-3.2 cm long, 5-13 mm wide, the young leaves thin, becoming thicker and reddish with age, the apex acute, rounded to cordate at the base, subentire to serrulate, occasionally reflexed, adaxially green, sparsely strigose to densely pilose, occasionally with reddish hairs, abaxially dark green with reddish or transparent hairs, densely pilose especially on the prominent veins; petioles 1-2 mm long, pilose. Inflorescences axillary, single flowered; bracts 1-2 mm long, pilose; pedicels 0.9-3.7 cm long, hirsute to pilose with reddish or transparent hairs. Flowers showy; calyx spreading, the lobes oblanceolate, 1.0-1.2 cm long, acute or obtuse at the apex, the margin entire to remotely serrulate, green or reddish, hirsute; corolla pink, orange red to deep purple, with or without yellow areas on the lower side, the tube funnel shaped, strongly zygomorphic, 6-7 cm long, the tube gibbous at the base, ca. 3 mm wide, becoming 10-11 mm wide at the throat, the lobed portion of the corolla 4.3-5.1 cm long, the lobes strongly unequal, the upper lobes truncate at the apex 1.0-1.9 cm long, the lower lobe reflexed, ca. 3 cm long, the outside reddish pilose, the inside glandular; stamens exserted, the filaments reddish, glabrous, the anthers coherent; ovary villous, the style yellow pilose, the stigma bilobed. Berry globose, ca. 1 cm in diam., at first white or transparent, becoming nearly black from the dark colored seeds within, surrounded by the persistent calyx.
Habit herbs
Distribution known from Guatemala and Costa Rica, through Panamai into northern South America. In Panama, specimens have been collected from the provinces of Chiriqui, Cocle, Darien, and Veraguas in wet forests at upper elevations.
Note The plants included here have borne a variety of names, more recently con- fused because of the loss of the holotype of Columnea microcalyx which was probably at Berlin (B). Until a neotype is selected the taxon must rest on the description given by Hanstein. The taxon is held together by characters of the habit, leaves, calyx, and corolla, although there appears to be some local variation. For example, the corollas of plants from the province of Chiriqui appear to differ from the typical in being rose pink and lacking the yellow patches at the sinuses of the lower lobe; however, the characters of the leaves match those of populations elsewhere. The species is perhaps related to Columnea gloriosa Sprague described in 1911 from cultivated material originally collected in Costa Rica. There are also local differences in lengths of floral parts, and leaf and calyx coloration. Variation in leaf and calyx coloration and indument may be light or age dependent. Label notes from a specimen collected by Henry Butcher, reads, ". . . new leaves light green and thin, thickening with age and changing to a pale red...." The floral coloration may be actually a response to pollinator preference, but to solve both of these problems, field studies are necessary, as the answers are not forthcoming from dried herbarium specimens.
Specimen CHIRIQUI: Trail from Cerro Punta to headwaters of Rio Caldera, 2250-2500 m, Allen 1428 (MO, US). Cerro Punta, 6390 ft, Butcher (US). Farm of Raimundo Pitti, Cerro Punta, 6300 ft, Butcher (US). W end of Paso de Respinga, 3 km by road SE of Bajo Grande, 4 km by air ESE of town of Cerro Punta, Chorro, 2400-2500 m, Cochrane et al. 6315 (F, MO). Above Bajo Chorro, 1000-2000 m, D'Arcy 11091 (MO). Alto Respinga, D'Arcy 10101 (MO). Bajo Chorro, Boquete District, 6000 ft, Davidson 76 (MO, US). Bajo Grande above Cerro Punta, Dressier 4906 (PMA). Slopes of Cerro Punta, 2000 m, Gentry 5888 (MO). Cerro Horqueta, 6500 ft, Hagen & Hagen 2162 (NY, US). Bajo Chorro, near Rio Caldera, 1900 m, Skog & D'Arcy 4102 (MO, US). Trail to Alto Respinga above town of Cerro Punta, 2500-2800 m, Skog et al. 4006 (US). Bajo Chorro near Rio Caldera, 1900 m, Skog et al. 4065 (US). SW slopes of Cerro Horqueta ca. 6 km NW of Boquete, 1700-1800 m, Wilbur et al. 15441 (DUKE). Trail from Bajo Grande along Quebrada Grande to the top of Paso de Respinga on trail to Boquete, 2100-2400 m, Wilbur et al. 15116 (DUKE, F). Ca. 1 km N of Las Nubes, E of the mountain of Cerro Punta and ca. 5 km NW of town of Cerro Punta, 2000-2300 m, Wilbur et al. 15206 (DUKE). Upper Rio Chiriqui Viejo ca. 2 km NE of Guadelupe, Wilbur et al. 15343 (DUKE, F). E of Guadeloupe along Rio Cbiriqul Viejo, ca. 2 mi NE of Cerro Punta, 6500 ft, Wilbur et al. 13084 (DUKE, MICH, MO). Above Cerro Punta toward Bajo Grande in Quebrada Bajo Grande, 6500 ft, Wilbur et al. 10917 (DUKE). Casita Alta, Volcan de Chiriqui, 1500-2000 m, Woodson et al. 955 (MO). Without other locality, Butcher (US). COCLEJ: Loma El Tigre near El Valle de Anton, Butcher s.n. (PMA). DARIEN: N slopes of Cerro Pirre, 700-950 m, Mori & Kallunki 5481 (MO). Cerro de Garagarai, Sambi' basin, 500-974 m, Pittier 5625 (US). Cana-Cuasl Trail (Camp 2), Chepigana District, 2000 ft, Terry & Terry 1540 (MO). VERAGUAS: Santa Fe slopes of Cerro Tute, 2500 ft, Allen 4381 (MO, US). 2-7 km beyond Agriculture School Alto Piedra near Santa Fe, 500-1000 m, Croat 25456 (MO); Folsom 2984 (MO); Gentry 2961 (MO); Moni & Kallunki 2596, 2597 (both MO); Mori et al. 3858 (MO); Nee 11214 (MO).
 
 
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