Gesneria parvifolia Alain

Gesneria parvifolia Alain

Gesneria parvifolia Alain, Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 21:145, 1971.

Shrubs: stems woody, erect, up to 50 cm tall, 5 mm in diameter at 10 cm below apex, bark rough, villous near apex, becoming smooth and glabrescent below, brownish, resinous, lenticels erumpent, dark, becoming striated; branches many, short, slender, internodes up to 5.3 cm long on rapidly growing branches, or ca 1 mm long at branch apices, leaf scars prominent.

Leaves usually conferted at branch apices: petioles subsulcate, 1–3 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, reddish, villous, glandular-resinous; blades elliptic, 1.5–3.3 cm long, 0.7–1.3 cm wide, subcoriaceous, base rounded, margin serrate to dentate, apex acute or rounded, adaxial surface somewhat bullate, green, pilose at the impressed midvein, resinous, nitid, abaxial surface brownish, pilose at the prominent reddish veins, glandular-resinous.

Inflorescences in upper leaf axils of 1–3 flowers, exceeding the subtending leaves: peduncles terete, 6–10 mm long; ca 1 mm in diameter, reddish, pilose; bracts linear 5–7 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, reddish, sparsely pilose, but glandular-resinous; pedicels terete, 1–7 mm long, ca 1 mm in diameter, reddish, pilose; floral tube obconic, 2–3 mm long, 2–3 mm wide at apex, dark, red, pilose; calyx lobes 5, connate for less than 1 mm, erect, each linear to narrowly triangular, 4–7 mm long, 1.0–1.5 mm wide at base, apex acuminate, both sides red and sparsely pilose, resinous, midvein prominent; corolla tube cylindrical, ca 15 mm long, ca 3 mm wide at middle, red, pilose and glandular-resinous, inside red-orange, glabrous, but resinous, limb slightly spreading, lobes 5, rotund, 1–2 mm long, margin entire, glandular; stamens 4, adnate to corolla base for less than 1 mm, filaments linear, yellow or reddish, glabrous, anthers oblong, 1.5 mm long, coherent in 2 pairs, staminode 5 mm long; ovary completely inferior, disc annular, sinuate, 1–2 mm wide, style linear, ca 1.3 cm long, reddish, pilose, stigma capitate.

Mature capsule not seen, immature capsule obovoid, 3 mm long, 3 mm wide, reddish, pilose, costae 5, obscure; seeds not seen.

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Sierra de Baoruco, Pedernales, Dominican Republic, Alain Liogier 13864 (NY, holotype (Figure 39a); US, isotype).

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY.—Gesneria parvifolia is known only from the mountains of southern Dominican Republic (Figure 27), where it grows on limestone rocks at 800–1100 m elevation. Flowering specimens have been collected in February and July.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—HISPANIOLA. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Province of Pedernales: Cueva de Boucan Calice, Hoyo de Pelempito, 1100 m, 3–8 July 1971, Alain Liogier 18118 (GH, NY, US); on a knoll between Boucan Calice and Hoyo de Pelempito, Sierra de Baoruco, 800 m, 13 February 1969, Alain Liogier 13864 (NY, holotype of Gesneria parvifolia Alain; US, isotype).