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Family: Acanthaceae
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Suffrutescent herbs up to 3 meters high or more; stems (upper portions) subquadrangular, minutely strigose, the hairs closely and upwardly appressed, sordid, about 0.25 mm. long; leaf blades oblong- elliptic or broadly oblanceolate, 25 to 30 cm. long, up to 12.5 mm. wide, acute or short-acuminate (the tip itself blunt), narrowed at base and decurrent on the petiole, submembranaceous, entire or undulate, the upper surface drying olive-green, sparingly and minutely strigose, the hairs less than 0.25 mm. long, closely appressed and confined chiefly to costa and lateral veins (14 to 16 pairs), both costa and veins flat or slightly raised, inconspicuous, the lower surface drying a dull brown- ish green, the pubescence that of the upper surface but denser and more evenly distributed, the costa and veins slightly raised, more conspicu- ous than above; petioles up to 5 cm. long, the pubescence that of the costa; spikes 1 to several, terminal and subterminal, up to 12 cm. long and 10 to 15 mm. broad, the peduncles up to 12 mm. long and 4 mm. thick, the pubescence that of the stem, the rachis glabrous or bearing a few slender hairs 0.25 to 0.5 mm. long; bracts rhombic-ovate, 12 mm. long, 10 mm. wide, subobtuse to subacute, nitid within, dull, glabrous and minutely roughened without (the lowermost sparingly strigose), the margins subhyaline and ciliolate, the costa prominent to tip of bract but scarcely excurrent, the lateral nerves prominent except toward tip, the ocelli replaced by dull pitted areas up to 1.5 mm. long and 1 mm. wide; bractlets lanceolate, 11 mm. long and 2.5 mm. wide, subfalcate and oblique, striate-nerved, carinate, the keel hirtellous, the hairs ascending, sordid, about 0.5 mm. long, gradually diminishing in length and number to the glabrous subhyaline margins, the inner sur- face silky-hirtellous toward tip, glabrous toward base; calyx up to 12 mm. long, the posterior segment ovate, 6 mm. wide, the anterior pair oblong-lanceolate, 3.5 mm. wide, the lateral pair more narrowly lanceolate, 3 mm. wide, all obtuse, more or less apiculate, finely striate- nerved, minutely hirsute and ciliolate toward tip, glabrous toward base; corolla 4 cm. long, red, papillose-puberulous, the upper lip erect, ovate, 1 cm. long, 7.5 mm. wide, bilobed at tip, the lobes narrowly triangular, 2.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide at base, acuminate, the middle lobe of the lower lip ovate, 11 mm. long and 6 mm. wide, acuminate, carinate toward tip, the lateral lobes elliptic, 4 mm. long and 2 mm. wide, adnate in part to the upper lip of corolla, the free portions about 1.5 mm. long and broad, rounded; stamens reaching the tip of the upper lip, the anthers 7 mm. long and 1.5 mm. broad, the basal lobes obtuse; capsules not seen. Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1572308, collected in dense forest in the region of Mount Chapón, Department of Boyacá, Colombia, "3,500 ft." altitude, May 8, 1932, by A. E. Lawrance (No. 18). Mutis' No. 1509 is also this species. Aphelandra chaponensis is characterized by relatively small corollas, their lips much shorter and relatively broader than is usual in other species of the A. pulcherrima-tetragona complex. The leaf blades of this new species and those of A. lingua-bovis are very similar. The latter species, however, has a calyx more than twice as large, the seg- ments of which are noticeably acute rather than obtuse. |