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Family: Acanthaceae
[Beloperone rohrii var. latifolia Nees, moreBeloperone sanmartensis Rusby] |
Justicia rohrii Vahl, Symb. 3: 6. 1794. Type locality: Cajenna (Guyane Française). Collected by Rohr. Beloperone rohri Nees in DC. Prodr. 11: 415. 1847. Based on Justicia rohrii Vahl. Photograph US (Field Mus. No. 22159). Beloperone rohrii Nees 8 latifolia Nees in DC. Prodr. 11: 415. 1847. Type locality: Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia. Collected by Bertero. Type in the Delessert Herbarium. Photograph of type in the U. S. National Herbarium (Field Mus. No. 7849). Beloperone sanmarlensis Rusby, Descr. So. Am. Pl. 128. 1920. Type collected in low damp parts of the dry forest region near Mamatoca, Santa Marta, Department of Magdalena, Colombia, 100 feet altitude, November 1898, by H. H. Smith, No. 96 (Ph, NY [holotype], S, US). Shrub up to 2 meters high or more; stems stout, obtusely quad- rangular, broadly sulcate, minutely puberulous; leaf blades ovate, oblong-ovate, elliptic or somewhat obovate, 15 to 30 cm. long, 7 to 16 cm. wide, short-acuminate or acute, usually narrowed to an obtuse, rounded or subcordate base although occasionally acute, rather thin, entire or undulate, the upper surface glabrous or sparingly and min- utely puberulous, the hairs subappressed, the costa impressed, this and the lateral veins rather obscure, the lower surface glabrous or the costa and veins (14 or 15 pairs) minutely and inconspicuously puber- ulous, the venation prominent, the cystoliths of both surfaces minute (about 0.3 mm. long) and obscure; petioles 2 to 7 cm. long, minutely puberulous; panicles terminal, up to 22 cm. long and 8 cm. broad, more or less narrowed toward tip; peduncles stout, up to 5 cm. long, appressed-puberulous; lowermost nodes of the inflorescence sub- tended by small leaves; branches of the inflorescence ascending, up to 9 cm. long, the internodes both of the branches and the rachis densely hirtellous, the longer hairs gland-tipped, up to 0.5 mm. long, the flowers and bracts crowded and more or less secund; lowermost bracts subtending the flowers ovate, 12 mm. long, 9 mm. wide near base, acute (the tip itself obtuse), rounded at base, densely hirtellous, the hairs up to 0.3 mm. long, some of them terminating in large patel- liform glands, the costa rather prominent, the lateral veins delicate, the bractlets oblong-elliptic, 12 mm. long, 5 mm. wide, acute, narrowed at base, the pubescence and venation that of the bracts, the succeed- ing bracts and bractlets similar to the lowermost but becoming gradu- ally smaller toward tip of the inflorescence branches; calyx 13 mm. long, deeply segmented, the pubescence and venation that of the bracts and bractlets, the segments lanceolate, slenderly acute, 2.25 mm. wide; corolla white or pale yellow, up to 3 cm. long, rather densely pubescent except the lower glabrous portion, the hairs spreading, or retrorse, up to 1 mm. long, the tube 2.25 mm. broad at base, enlarged to 3 mm. slightly above base and narrowed to 2.25 mm. at 4 mm. above base, thence gradually enlarged to 4 mm. at throat, the lips subequal, about 15 mm. long, the upper lip erect, ovate, acute, 7 mm. wide at base, the lower lip recurved, 3-lobed, 4 mm. wide at base of lobes, the lobes oblanceolate, 7 mm. long, 2 mm. wide near tip, rounded; stamens exserted, reaching tip of the upper corolla lip, the filaments glabrous, the anther cells obliquely attached to the con- nective and superposed, the upper lobe 2.25 mm. long and 0.75 mm. broad, blunt at base, borne at a 40-degree angle from the horizontal, the lower lobe 2.5 mm. long and 0.75 mm. broad, vertical, the lower tip terminated by a blunt tail 0.5 mm. long; styles slightly shorter than the stamens, essentially glabrous; capsules clavate, 12 mm. long, 4 mm. broad, about 3 mm. thick, the solid stipitate basal portion 4 mm. long and 3 mm. wide, the outer surface finely pubescent, the hairs up to 0.25 mm. long, those at and near the tip spreading, the others retrorse; retinacula 3 mm. long, thin, whitish and subtruncate at tip; seed suborbicular, flattened, about 2.5 mm. long and broad, strongly papillose. Limited in Colombia apparently to the arid forested coastal belt of the Santa Marta region. The following note accompanies H. H. Smith's No. 96: "Shrub, 4-6 ft. Common locally in low damp parts of the dry forest region below 1000 ft. Flowers Nov.-Dec. pale yellow." MAGDALENA: Guamacito, Record 35 (NY). Arid coastal belt south of Santa Marta, Killip & Smith 21100 (NY, US).
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