Columnea guianensis
Content
Description
Epiphytic or epipetric large herb or small shrub, to 3.2 m tall. Stem woody at base, succulent above, procumbent and ascending, villous or hirsute to glabrescent. Leaves strongly unequal in a pair; petiole 0.4-1 cm long, villous or hirsute; blade chartaceous when dry, oblanceolate, blade of larger leaf in a pair 12-28.5 x 4.3-10.9 cm, margin denticulate, apex acute to acuminate, base obliquely cuneate, above sparsely pilose to glabrous, below pubescent to pilose. Flowers solitary or up to 3 in fasciculate inflorescences; pedicel 0.3-1 cm long, villous. Calyx campanulate, green, lobes nearly free, erect, subequal, lanceolate, narrowed towards base, 2-2.6 x 0.5-0.6 cm wide, margin sharply serrate, apex long-acuminate, outside villous, sometimes with red hairs, inside villous; corolla erect in calyx, pale yellow with reddish lobes, 2.5-3.3 cm long, tube narrowly cylindric, 2-3.2 cm long, base subgibbous, 0.4-0.5 cm wide, middle ventricose, throat subgibbous, 0.4-0.6 cm wide, outside sericeous, inside sparsely puberulous, limb ca. 0.8 cm wide, lobes subequal, spreading, subtriangular, ca. 0.2 x 0.2 cm wide, margin reddish and entire; stamens included, adnate to corolla base; staminode very small; ovary ovoid, ca. 0.4 x 0.3 cm, pubescent, style ca. 2.5 cm long, glabrous, stigma 2-lobed. Mature berry white, ellipsoid, 1 x 0.6 cm.