Description

Trees: branching unknown; twigs angular, soon becoming terete, 5 mm diam.; epidermis brownish, barely visible due to indument cover; terminal bud plump, 8 X 4 mm; cataphylls caducous; indument tomentose, caducous after one flush, the hairs dense, up to 1 mm long, straight to curved, erect, brownish to reddish. Leaves: petioles robust, 1–1.5 cm X 2–4 mm, terete; blades coriaceous, flat, ovate, 12–16 X 6–9 cm; base rounded (flat to almost cordate), 150–180°; apex acute to attenuate, 100–120°, acuminate for up to 2.5 cm; margin flatmargin plane; primary vein above slightly raised, below prominent; secondary veins 10–11 pairs, equidistant, eucamptodromous, above slightly raised, below raised, diverging at 55°, abruptly arching near margin (forked), chordal angle 40°, lowest pair more obtuse than rest; tertiary veins above inconspicuous, below raised, random-reticulate; higher order veins above inconspicuous, below slightly raised; surface above yellowish-brown, below reddish-brown; indument above tomentose, primary , the primary and secondary veins densely tomentose, caducous after one flush, below tomentose, the hairs dense to sparse, up to 0.8 mm long, straight, erect, yellowish-brown, persisting for at least two flushes. Staminate inflorescences: along whole length of flush, erect, peduncles 7–12 cm long, hypopodiathe hypopodia 4–6 cm X 1–2 mm, branch orders 4, second-order , the second-order branches 4–5, dispersed, lowest branch up to 3 cm long, color and indument of all axes as on twigs; bracts caducous; bracteoles caducous. Staminate flowers: pedicels 3 X 1.2 mm, the diameter gradually increasing apically; receptacle obconical, ca. 3 X 5 mm; tepals coriaceous, ovate, ca. 3 X 2.5 mm (inner whorl slightly smaller), at anthesis erect to spreading, reddish-brown, adaxially tomentose; stamens of whorls I and II sessile, chubby, anther , the antherssessile, chubby trapezoid, ca. 2.5 X 1.8 mm, glabrous, locelli, the locelli 4, apical, in a shallow arch, introrse, glands, the glands absent; whorl III columnar, ca. 2.5 X 1 mm, glabrous, locelli, the locelli 4, upperthe upper pair latrorse, lowerthe lower pair extrorse, glands, the glands globose, more or less fused, ca. 1 mm diam.; whorl IV absent; all stamens reddish; pistillode filiform, ca. 2 X 1 mm, glabrous. Pistillate flowers and fruits unknown.

Field notes

Trees up to 4–5 m tall. Tepals red.

Distribution

Known only from the type specimen collected on the Cordillera de Mérida, the northern continuation of the Colombian Eastern Cordillera Oriental of los the Andes, in Venezuela. Growing at ca. 2500 m elev. in cloud forest; flowers found in October.

Additional specimens examined

 

Discussion

Rhodostemonodaphne ovatifolia has distinctly ovate leaves; only Rh.R. dioica has a leaf shape that approaches this ovate outline.  Unusually for the genus, the stamens of both outer whorls have a pair of distinct lateral appendages, similar to the glands of whorl III.

The general shape of the stamens of Rh.Rhodostemonodaphne  ovatifolia it resembles that of Rh.R. laxa and Rh.R. velutina, but the tepals lack the distinct thick medial ridge of these two species.  Externally the flowers are very similar to those of Rh.R. mirecolorata.

On the basis of both vegetative morphology and biogeography this species forms part of the core of the Rh.R. laxa-group (e.g., Rh.R. laxa and Rh.R. velutina).  The twigs and leaves are densely covered with a yellowish-brown indument, characteristic of the species of this group, and like them it is a high altitude species of the N Andes.