Nautilocalyx pictus

Primary tabs

Nautilocalyx pictus

Description

Terrestrial herb, 20-50 cm tall. Stem sappy, creeping or ascending, purple-villous or pilose at apex, glabrescent. Leaves subequal in a pair; petiole (1-)1.5-5(-8) cm long, villous or pilose; blade chartaceous when dry, oblong-elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 5.5-22.5 x 2.5-10 cm, margin crenate-serrate, apex acuminate, base cuneate, above sparsely strigose to glabrous, below appressed-pubescent or pilosulous, especially on midrib and veins. Flowers 1 to several; peduncle obsolete or very short; pedicel 0.3-1.5 cm long, purple villous. Calyx green or purple, lobes almost free, 4erect, subequal, linear-lanceolate, 1-2.5 x 0.15-0.4 cm, dorsal one curved around spur, somewhat smaller, margin with few thickened, hard teeth, apex long-acuminate, outside and inside densely villous; corolla oblique in calyx, white, 3-4.5 cm long, tube more or less infundibuliform, 2.5-3.5 cm long, base spurred, 0.2-0.4 cm wide, middle slightly contracted, throat slightly contracted, 0.7-1.1 cm wide, outside more or less pilose, inside dorsally pubescent with glandular hairs, limb 1.5-2 cm wide, lobes subequal, 2 dorsal lobes somewhat smaller than others, spreading, rounded, 0.4-0.7 x 0.4-0.7 cm, margin more or less serrate; stamens included, inserted at base of corolla; ovary ovoid, 0.25-0.4 x 0.15-0.3 cm, hirsute, style 2-2.5 cm long, pubescent, stigma 2-lobed. Mature capsule light brown, globose, 0.6-0.8 x 0.6-0.8 cm.

Distribution

Guianas present, Southern America: Colombia (Colombia present), northern Brazil present
Colombia, the Guianas and northern Brazil; > 200 collections studied (GU: 25; SU: 15; FG: 165).

Common Name

English (French Guiana): mâle herbe serpent, yawayi lo

Phenology

Collected in flower , in fruit .

Uses

Used in local medicine against scorpion stings; cultivated as an ornamental, several color-forms have been introduced in cultivation.