Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Plant 1.5–5 m tall.

Stems: Stem 0.4–4 m tall x 1.5–10 cm diam., cicatrices 3–5 mm tall x 6–13 mm wide, transversely rhombic, the corners acute.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades oblanceolate or narrowly oblong, 10–24 cm long x 1.3–3.8 cm wide. Apex acute or acuminate. Base attenuate, cuneate, or obtuse. Surfaces glabrous or margin ciliate toward base. Margins subrevolute or merely thickened. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescence 1–1.5 m tall, unbranched or 5–7–branched, each branch 18–100–flowered and pyramidal in outline, its axis green, glabrous or pubescent; peduncle sparsely covered with sterile bracts that rapidly decrease in size acropetally; sterile bracts 30–120 mm long x 10–25 mm wide, oblanceolate, narrowly oblong, oblong, or elliptic, the apex acuminate or acute, the base cuneate; floral bracts 20–90 mm long x 6–16 mm wide, obovate, elliptic, lanceolate, oblong, or linear, the apex acute or acuminate, the base cuneate; pedicels 15–60 mm long; hypanthium 8–15 mm long x 6–17 mm diam. broadly obconic or campanulate, 1/5–1/10 as long as the corolla, glabrous or pubescent. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Calyx 5-lobed, lobes 7.5–35 mm long x 3.5–9 mm wide, narrowly triangular or lanceolate, ¾ as long to 3 ½ times longer than the hypanthium, the margin entire and sometimes ciliate, the apex acuminate or acute and sometimes apiculate, sepals connate, tube adnate to ovary. Corolla zygomorphic, dorsally cleft almost to base, 67-103 mm long, white or rarely red, glabrous (rarely sparsely pubescent at apex of lobes); tube 26-45 mm long x 7-15 mm diam. at middle, suberect or slightly curved, expanding slightly towards the mouth, 2.2-5 times longer than broad; dorsal lobes 35-70 mm long x 4-6 mm wide, 0.9-3.1 times as long as the tube; ventral lip 30-52 mm long x 12-28 mm wide. Stamens 5, alternate with corolla lobes; anthers with apical tufts of white hairs on all 5, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits, coherent but separating after anthesis or connate and forming a tube into which pollen is shed; filaments distinct or connate above, attached to the epigynous nectary disk or to base of corolla, rarely adnate to corolla tube; filament tube 58–82 mm long, decurved slightly, 4 ½–6 ¼ times longer than anther tube, glabrous; anther tube 4–6.5 mm diam.; dorsal anthers 11–16 mm long; ventral anthers 8–13 mm long. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, often crowned with an annular nectary disk; ovule placentation axile, or when 1-celled with 2 parietal placentas; stigmas wet or dry, 2-lobed, appressed and nonreceptive as the style grows through the anther tube, pushing out the pollen, after which the stigmas spread apart and become receptive.

Fruit: Loculicidal capsules; 27–37 mm long x 10–18 mm diam; dehiscent at apex by 2 valves. Seeds numerous; with a straight; short to spatulate dicotyledonous embryo embedded in oily endosperm; 2–2.3 mm long x 1–1.2 mm wide; honey- or chestnut-brown.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Known from montane wet mixed communities and montane wet forest; also in bogs and margins of bogs.

Elevation Range: 1,350–1,750 m.