Potalia resinifera
Content
Description
Shrub or treelet, up to 3(-8) m high, monopodial or sparsely branched. Stems and branches 2(-15) cm in diam., terete, not winged; internodes 1.6-13 cm long. Leaves petiolate, crowded towards branch apices; petiole up to 4.2 cm long; blade chartaceous (less often coriaceous), broadly oblanceolate to obovate, 27-80 x 7-19 cm, margin flat to slightly revolute, apex acute to acuminate, base long-attenuate. Inflorescence up to ca. 40-flowered; bracts and bracteoles triangular, 2-5 mm long; pedicel 8-20 mm long. Flowers erect; calyx lobes yellow or orange, orbicular, elliptic, 4-7 x 4-5 mm (4-8(-10) x 4-7 mm in fruit), margin not hyaline, apex obtuse; corolla yellow and green (rarely orange basally), tubularwith erect or slightly spreading lobes (more open than P. amara), 11-20 mm long, 5-8 mm wide at mouth, lobes ovate, 2-3 x ca. 2 mm, apex bluntly acute; stamens not extending beyond corolla lobes, filaments 2-3 mm long, straight, anthers yellow, linear, 5-7 mm long, slightly bent sideways; pollen exine smooth, imperforate; pistil ca. 8 mm long, ovary ca. 5 x 2 mm, style 2-3 mm long, stigma circular, ca. 1 mm in diam.Fruit erect, green, yellow to orange when fresh, brown when dry, globose to ellipsoid, 8-17 x 11-16 mm, with a thickened ring above calyx lobes; seeds brown, ca. 4 x 2 mm.
Distribution
Guianas present, Guyana present, Southern America: Bolivia (Bolivia present); Colombia (Colombia present); Ecuador (Ecuador present); Peru (Peru present); Venezuela (Venezuela present), Suriname present
The most widespread species in the genus, in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and Brazil; ca. 250 collections studied, of which 3 from the Guianas (GU: 2, SU: 1).