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Family: Acanthaceae
[Chaetothylax huilensis Leonard] |
Herbs up to 30 cm. high or more; stems more or less branched, subquadrangular, erect or ascending, hirsute, the hairs straight and spreading or retrorsely curved, up to 1 mm. long, more or less arranged in 2 rows; leaf blades ovate, up to 6 cm. long and 3 cm. wide, obtuse to acute and often aristate (the awn up to 3 mm. long), cuneate at base, rather firm, entire, the upper surface sparingly hirtellous, the hairs ascending, 0.67 mm. long, the lower surface more densely and evenly hirtellous, the hairs on costa and veins (5 or 6 pairs) mostly straight and spreading, up to 0.67 mm. long, the others curved and ascending and usually less than 0.5 mm. long, the cystoliths rather numerous but obscure; petioles (unwinged portion) up to 1 cm. long, hirtellous; flowers borne in dense terminal and axillary subsessile panicles up to 2.5 cm. long and broad, these composed of dense spikes 1.5 cm. long and 8 to 10 mm. broad and intermixed with small leaves, the lowermost internodes of the spikes 1 mm. long, the others succes- sively shorter, sparingly hirtellous; bracts linear, up to 12 mm. long and 0.5 mm. wide, ciliate and hirsute, the hairs white, straight, mostly spreading, up to 0.75 mm. long, the costa prominent; calyx segments narrowly linear, up to 11 mm. long and 0.5 mm. wide, gradually nar- rowed into a filiform tip, conspicuously ciliate and pilose, the hairs white, mostly straight and spreading, up to 1 cm. long, the costa ob- scure, apparent only toward base; corollas violet, 1.5 cm. long, the tube subcylindric, 1 mm. broad at base, enlarged to 1.5 mm. just above the ovary, thence narrowed to 0.75 mm., 1.5 mm. wide at throat, glabrous at base, otherwise rather densely hirtellous with white straight spreading or retrorsely curved hairs up to 0.25 mm. long, the upper lip narrowly ovate, about 3.5 mm. long and 1 mm. wide at base, the tip minutely bilobed, the lower lip 3.5 mm. long, 3-lobed nearly to base, the lobes obovate, the middle one 1.5 mm. wide, the lateral ones slightly narrower, all rounded; stamens exserted 1 mm. beyond the mouth of the corolla, glabrous, the upper anther lobe 0.75 mm. long and 0.5 mm. broad, the lower lobe affixed 0.75 mm. below the upper, about 0.5 mm. long, sterile, the connective between the 2 lobes slender: capsules clavate, whitish, 7 mm. long, about 2 mm. broad and 1.25 mm. thick, minutely and sparingly pubescent, the hairs up to 0.08 mm. long and retrorsely recurved, the retinacula 1.5 mm. long, the tips up to 0.25 mm. broad and suberose, the seed flattened, about 2 mm. in diameter, papillose. Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1041358, collected in a quebrada thicket in the Cordillera Oriental, east of Neiva, Colombia, 700 to 1,500 meters altitude, July 31, 1917, by H. H. Rusby and Francis W. Pennell (No. 486). Isotypes: GII, NY. S. Galen Smith's No. 1164 (US), collected on a dissected plateau at Cabrera Lajas, about 11 km. east of Villavieja, on the road to Baraya, Department of Huila, 460 meters altitude, July 7, 1950, is also of this species. |