Pfaffia glabrata var. rostrata
Content
Description
Herb or subshrub to 2 m; stems ascending or erect, branched, 30-120 cm, glabrescent. Leaves petiolate; blade lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 3.5-12 x 0.3-1.3 (-2) cm, attenuate or acuminate at base and apex, glabrate above, strigose beneath. Inflorescence of simple, axillary or terminal, solitary head-like spikes; head-like spikes erect, ovoid-globose or subglobose, 3-5 cm long, eventually (becoming) elongated; bracts ovate-cordate, glabrous, slightly pilose. Tepals oblong-lanceolate, ca. 4.2-5 mm long, subacute, 3-veined, glabrous on back, with a very short tuft of hairs shorter than bracteoles at base; filaments ciliolate on margin, apical appendages of filaments oblong; stigmas subglobose.
Distribution
French Guiana present present, Southern America: Peru (Peru present)
Peru, Brazil and French Guiana; 8 non-Guianan collections examined; no French Guiana specimens encountered. Stützer (1935) attributed 2 specimens from French Guiana to this variety: sin. loc., coll. 1826, Poiteau s.n. (K, P); near Cayenne, Poiteau s.n. (V).
Notes
Distinctive for the large, 4.2-5 mm long tepals being glabrous on the back, and with a very short tuft of hairs from inside, not exceeding the perianth. Typical P. glabrata has leaves glabrate above and pubescent beneath, and tepals 4.2-5 mm long, whereas the characteristics given for French Guianan P. glabrata var. rostrata by Stützer are leaves pubescent on both sides and tepals 3 mm long, shorter than those (4.2-5 mm) examined by the present authors and which approach the characters of P. glomerata , although the latter has tepals more often 2 mm, rather than 3 mm long.