Mendoncia squamuligera
Content
Description
Suffruticose vine to 30 m high. Stem subquadrate to quadrate. Indument of branchlets, petioles and inflorescences hirsute with antrorse, yellowish-brown and stipitate glandular or eglandular trichomes 0.75-1 mm long or older parts glabrescent. Petiole 1-2 cm long; blade membranaceous to moderately firm, broadly elliptic to oblong, 7.5-12 x 4.3-8 cm, margin entire or undulate, abruptly acuminate to short-cuspidate at apex (usually tipped by a mucro 1-2 mm long), acute to rotundate or cuneate at base, upper surface nearly glabrous or sparsely pubescent with trichomes arising from star-shaped bases, lower surface more densely pubescent with cauline trichomes and glandular punctate; primary and secondary veins prominent beneath, secondary veins (3-4 pairs) curved upwards towards margin, densely pubescent with antrorse, yellowish-brown trichomes. Flowers 1-3 in each axil; pedicels 1.5-2.5 cm long, twisted, 0.5 mm wide at base, gradually enlarged to 1.25 mm at tip, pubescent; bracteoles green, oblong, 30-40 x 9-13 mm, margin ciliate with stiff, unicellular trichomes to 1.5 mm long, rounded or obtuse and apiculate at apex, apicula 1-1.25 mm long, rotundate at base, outer surface yellowish-brown hirsute and minutely punctate, glabrous within. Calyx short, cupular, 0.75 mm long, glabrous; corolla white or white with lilac streaks, 50-65 mm long, tube cylindric, 3.5 mm wide at base, inflated and then narrowed again to 4 mm at 12 mm above base, about 13 mm wide apically, upper lip 14 mm long, lobes subequal, suborbicular, 8.5 x 8 mm, shallowly emarginate at apex, lower lip somewhat longer than upper, lobes suborbicular, 10 x 9 mm; filaments (free part) about 3 mm long, anthers 8 mm long; ovary obliquely oblongoid, rugulose, 0.5 mm long, 2.5 mm in diam., glabrous, style persistent 40-45 mm long, glabrous. Fruit brownish to purplish-black, oblong-obovoid, rugulose, 16-18 x 8-9.5 mm in diam., glabrous or subglabrous.