Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Plant 2.4–4 m tall.

Stems: Stem 1–2 m tall x 1–6 cm diam., cicatrices 3–4.5 mm tall x 4.5–8 mm wide, depressed obtrullate or depressed obovate, the corners rounded.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades linear, oblanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, 24–32 cm long x 2.2–3.3 cm wide. Apex acuminate. Base attenuate or cuneate. Surfaces glabrous or pubescent on ventral midrib. Margins subrevolute. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescence 1–2 m tall, 5–branched, sparsely pubescent with relatively short curled trichomes, each branch 13–35–flowered and cylindrical in outline, its axis green; peduncle sparsely covered with sterile bracts that rapidly decrease in size acropetally; sterile bracts 30–105 mm long x 4–14 mm wide, linear or narrowly oblong, the apex acuminate, the base cuneate; floral bracts 12–23 mm long x 4–10 mm wide, elliptic, oblong, or obovate, the apex obtuse or rounded. the base cuneate; pedicels 25–45 mm long, of more–or-less equal length throughout; hypanthium 6–10 mm long x 13–15 mm diam. broadly obconic, 1/7–1/11 as long as the corolla, glabrous or pubescent. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Calyx 5-lobed, lobes 8–13 mm long x 3–6 mm wide, triangular or oblong, equaling to a bit longer than the hypanthium, the margin entire, the apex rounded, sepals connate, tube adnate to ovary. Corolla zygomorphic, dorsally cleft almost to base, 64-66 mm long, pale purple with pink longitudinal veins, glabrous, tube 20-22 mm long x 10-12 mm diam. at middle, slightly curved expanding slightly towards the mouth, twice as long as broad; dorsal lobes 42-46 mm long x 4-5 mm wide, about twice as long as the tube; ventral lip 37-39 mm long x 15-17 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 64–66 mm long, suberect, 4 times longer than anther tube, glabrous; anther tube 4 mm diam.; dorsal anthers 14–16 mm long; ventral anthers 10–11 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; 19–30 mm long x 8–20 mm diam.; dehiscent at apex by 2 valves. Seeds numerous; with a straight; short to spatulate dicotyledonous embryo embedded in oily endosperm; 2–3 mm long x 0.7–0.9 mm wide; chestnut–brown.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Montane wet mixed communities.

Elevation Range: 1370–1570 m. (Wai'ale'ale:); 1220–1350 m. (Pihea,)