Besleria flavovirens
Description
Terrestrial herb or subshrub, 0.5-2 m tall. Stem woody at base, erect or ascending, puberulous at apex, glabrescent below. Leaves equal in a pair; petiole 1.4-6 cm long, nearly glabrous; blade papyraceous when dry, oblong lanceolate, 12.5-32 x 5-12 cm, margin serrulate, apex acuminate, base cuneate, above glabrous, below appressed pubescent especially on midrib and veins. Flowers in cymose or congested-paniculate, numerous-flowered inflorescences; peduncle (0.5-)1-2.5 cm long, nearly glabrous; pedicel 0.3-1 cm long, puberulous. Calyx subcampanulate, green or rarely purplish, lobes nearly free, tube ca. 0.1 cm long, free portion of lobes erect, subequal, suborbicular, 0.2-0.3 x 0.2-0.25 cm, margin entire, apex rounded or subemarginate, outside puberulous when young, inside glabrous; corolla erect in calyx, white, 0.35-0.6 cm long, tube cylindric, 0.35-0.4 cm long, base not spurred or gibbous, 0.2 cm wide, middle ventricose, throat contracted, 0.2 cm wide, outside glabrous, inside with a ring of glandular hairs below attachment of filaments, limb 0.3-0.4 cm wide, lobes subequal, spreading, orbicular, 0.1-0.2 x 0.1-0.2 cm, margin entire; stamens subincluded, inserted at middle of corolla tube; ovary broadly ovoid, 0.7 x 0.7 cm wide, glabrous, style 0.3 cm long, glabrous, stigma stomatomorphic. Mature berry reddish, globose-ovoid, 0.4-0.6 x 0.4-0.6 cm.
Distribution
Bolivar present, Guianas present, Loreto present, Southern America: Argentina South (Rio Negro present); Brazil North (Amazonas present ‒ present ‒ present, Roraima present); Brazil Northeast (Bahia present); Colombia (Colombia present); Costa Rica (Costa Rica present); Peru (Peru present); Venezuela (Venezuela present)
Costa Rica, Colombia (Amazonas), Venezuela (Amazonas, Bolívar), Peru (Loreto), the Guianas, Brazil (Amazonas, Roraima, Río Negro and Bahia); > 100 collections studied (GU: 3; SU: 5; FG: 32).