Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Probably a shrub.

Stems: Stem 0.8–1.2 cm diam. glabrous, cicatrices widely obtrullate, 5–5.5 mm tall, 6–6.5 mm wide.

Roots: Roots mycotrophic via vesiculararbuscular mycorrhizae (Koske et al. 1992).

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate, forming a dense spherical, oblate, or cylindrical apical rosette. Blades broadly oblanceolate, 16–31×2.8–4.7 cm, 5.5–7 times longer than wide. Apex acuminate. Base attenuate, sometimes quite petiole-like, in other cases the differentiation of a petiole very indefinite and the leaf clearly sessile. Surfaces glabrous; blades coriaceous. Margins crenulate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in racemes glabrous, each 35–45–flowered; sterile bracts lanceolate, oblanceolate, or narrowly oblong, 32–63×6–12 mm, the margin entire, the apex acute or acuminate; rachis 25–29 cm long; floral bracts lanceolate, 10–28×3.5–6 mm, the margin denticulate toward apex, the apex acute or acuminate; pedicels 15–18 mm long; bracteoles elliptic or ovate, 1–3 mm long; hypanthium obconic or oblate, 4–5 mm long, 6–6.5 mm diam. 1/17–1/12 as long as the corolla. Flowers tetracyclic, bisexual (perfect), protandrous, zygomorphic, epigynous, pedicellate, resupinate, ornithophilous, large. Calyx lobes lanceolate or narrowly triangular, minutely auriculate at base, erect, 6–11×2.5–3 mm, 1.5–2.5 times as long as the hypanthium, the margin denticulate and/or ciliate toward apex, the apex acute or acuminate. Corolla subbilabiate, 54–62 mm long; tube curved, 28–35 mm long, 4–5 mm tall at middle, 2–3 mm tall at mouth, 5.8–8.8 times longer than height at middle; dorsal lobes 25–30×1–2 mm, ¾–5/6 as long as the tube, the apex acuminate; ventral lip obovate, 18–26×4–6 mm. Stamens 5, antisepalous, connate distally for most of their length; Staminal column strongly exserted, emerging well above the dorsal lobes; filament tube 48–54 mm long, 4.2–4.5 times longer than dorsal anthers, pubescent in the apical half; anther tube 3.5–4 mm diam. pubescent in the basal half; dorsal anthers 11–12 mm long; ventral anthers 8–9 mm long, with tufts of white trichomes 1.5–1.8 mm long at apex. Pollen grains 41–44 μm polar diam. 27–30 μm equatorial diam. prolate, tricolporate, the exine shallowly and minutely reticulate (Selling, 1947). Ovary inferior, 2-loculed, adnate to the hypanthium, flat at apex; placentae axile; ovules numerous; style 1, slender, terete (cylindrical), with a ring of stiff white hairs near the apex; stigma 2-lobed, the lobes appressed and non–receptive as the style grows through the anther tube, pushing out pollen, after which the stigmas spread and become receptive.

Fruit: Fruit unknown. Seeds unknown.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Lowland wet shrubland.

Elevation Range: 1000–1030 m.