Columnea calotricha

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Columnea calotricha

Description

Epiphytic or rarely terrestrial herb or subshrub, 0.1-1 m tall. Stem succulent, erect or ascending, hirsute. Leaves subequal or rarely strongly unequal in a pair; petiole 0.5-3 cm long, pilose; blade membranous to papyraceous when dry, lanceolate, elliptic or obovate, larger blade 3-19 x 1-6 cm, margin serrulate or crenulate, apex acute to acuminate, base cuneate, usually oblique, above and below pilose. Flowers solitary or up to 7 in fasciculate inflorescences; pedicel 0.3-1 cm long, hirsute. Calyx subcampanulate, green at base, red or orange above, lobes free, erect, subequal, oblanceolate or oblong, 0.8-2.5 x 0.3-0.6 cm, margin serrate near apex, apex acute and serrulate, outside densely pilose to hirsute, inside hirsute towards apex; corolla erect in calyx, orange-yellow or yellow with brown or red hairs, 1.5-3.5 cm long, tube narrowly tubular, 1.5-2.0(-3.5) cm long, base gibbous, 0.2-0.3 cm wide, middle only slightly curved, not ventricose, throat slightly contracted, 0.2-0.5 cm wide, outside brown-pilose, inside glabrous, corolla limb 0.6-1 cm wide, lobes subequal, erect, triangular to oblong, 0.3-0.4 x 0.2-0.3 cm, dorsal lobes concave, margin entire; stamens equalling corolla tube to exserted, adnate to corolla tube base; staminode minute; ovary ovoid, 0.3 x 0.2 cm, sparsely hirsute, style 1.7-3.5 cm long, glabrous, stigma 2-lobed. Mature berry white below, purplish to reddish above, ovoid, ellipsoid to globose, 0.5-1(-1.6) x 0.4-0.5 cm.

Distribution

Amaprá present, French Guiana present, Guianas present, Southern America: Costa Rica (Costa Rica present); Guatemala (Guatemala present); Panamá (Panamá present), Suriname present
Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Brazil (Amaprá), in Suriname and French Guiana; > 100 specimens studied, 63 from the Guianas (SU: 11; FG: 52).

Common Name

English (French Guiana): suisuika'a, suwisuwika'a, yamulepila; English (Suriname): aloekoe wonoeloa, jaloealoea, yamul ka a

Phenology

Collected in flower in ; in fruit in .