Gesneria salicifolia (Griseb.) Urb.

Gesneria salicifolia (Grisebach) Urban

Gesneria salicifolia (Grisebach) Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:373, 1901.

Shrubs or small trees: stems woody, erect, 0.5–2.5 m tall, 3–6 mm in diameter at 10 cm below apex, bark somewhat scabrous, tuberculate or verruculose from erumpent lenticels, reddish toward apex, brown to gray below, apex resinous; branches sparse or rarely abundant, erect, appearing somewhat swollen below apex, internodes 0.2–2.5 cm long, leaf scars not prominent.

Leaves alternate, at the ends of the branches, but not conferted, soon falling: petioles sulcate, 3.5–12.0 mm long, ca 1 mm wide, green to brown, glandular-resinous, verruculose; blades elongate-elliptic, oblong, oblanceolate, obovate, or spathulate, 2.5–11.2 cm long, 0.7–2.6 cm wide, subcoriaceous, base acute or obtuse, margin entire below, serrulate or denticulate toward apex, recurved, apex acute, acuminate, rounded, or emarginate, adaxial surface plane, smooth or slightly rough when dried, dark green to yellowish, glabrous, nitid, veins impressed, abaxial surface reddish brown, slightly resinous, veins prominent, darker.

Inflorescences numerous, cymose or subcorymbose, in the upper axils, 1– to 4 (–6)-flowered, equaling or exceeding the subtending leaves: peduncles terete or broadened toward apex, curved upward, 4–12 cm long, ca 1 mm in diameter, green or reddish-brown, glabrous, verruculose; bracts 2, caducous, linear, 2–6 mm long, less than 1 mm wide, green or reddish-brown, glabrous; pedicels 0.5–1.5 cm long, ca 1 mm in diameter, green or reddish-brown; floral tube obconic, 2–4 mm long, 2–3 mm in diameter at apex, green or reddish-brown, glandular-resinous; calyx 5-lobed, lobes connate at base for ca 1 mm, each lobe erect or curved, narrowly lanceolate to linear, 0.3–1.5 cm long, 0.7–2.0 mm wide, outside with midvein prominent, inside sulcate, both sides green, yellow or reddish, glandular-resinous; corolla tube cylindric somewhat curved, slightly ventricose at middle, 1.4–2.5 cm long, 3–5 mm wide at base, 4–8 mm wide at middle, 3–6 mm wide at throat, outside pale yellow, pale red, scarlet or yellow-orange, glandular-resinous, inside yellow, glabrous, limb 5-lobed, lobes semiorbiculate, red or yellow, glabrous, margins stipitate-glandular, upper lobes 1–2 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide, erose, lateral lobes 1.0–1.5 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, entire, basal lobe 1–2 mm long and wide, entire; stamens 4, shortly adnate to base of corolla tube, included or exserted to mouth of corolla tube, filaments curved, 1.1–1.7 cm long, red or yellow, anthers oblong, 1.0–2.5 mm long, 1.0–1.5 mm wide, sparsely pilose on reverse, staminode ca 2.5 mm long; ovary inferior, apex pilose, disc annular, yellow, style curved, exserted, 2.0–2.6 cm long, green or reddish, pilose, stigma capitate, papillate.

Capsule obconic, turbinate or subglobose, 3–8 mm long, 2.5–5.5 mm wide at apex, brown to gray, smooth, glabrescent, glandular, costae 5 or 10, obscure or prominent; seeds fusiform, striate, twisted, ca 1 mm long, ca 0.25 mm wide, black.

17a. Gesneria salicifolia var. ferruginea (C. Wright) L. Skog, new rank

Pentarhaphia ferruginea C. Wright in Sauvalle, Anales Acad. Ci. Méd. Habana 6:317, 1869.—Sauv., Fl. Cub. 93, 1873.

Gesneria ferruginea (C. Wright) Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:373, 1901.—Morton in Leon & Alain, Fl. de Cuba 4:459, 1957.

Shrubs or small trees: stems and branches slightly swollen below apex, sparsely verruculose.

Leaves broadly elliptic or oblong, base obtuse, apex acute.

Flowers yellowish, calyx lobes strongly angled, greenish-yellow, 5–8 mm long, corolla pale yellow.

Capsule narrowly obconic, to 8 mm long, 4–5 mm wide at apex, costae 5, prominent.

TYPE-COLLECTION.—Cuba, C. Wright 3643 (GH, holotype, (Figure 40a); NY, US, isotypes).