References: MANSFELD, R. & H. O. SLEUMER, Revision der Gattung Befaria Mutis. Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 12: 235--276 (1935). -- CLEMANTS, S. E., A revision of the genus Bejaria Mutis ex L. (Ericaceae). Ph.D. dissertation, The City University of New York, New York, NY (1984). -- CLEMANTS, S. E., (1103) Proposal to conserve 6182 Bejaria (Ericaceae) with a conserved spelling and type. Taxon 43: 473--476 (1994). -- CLEMANTS, S. E., Bejaria , in J. L. LUTEYN (ed.), Ericaceae--Part.... The superior-ovaried genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae p.p.). Flora Neotrop. Monogr. 66: 54--106 (1995).
Terrestrial shrubs or small, slender trees, glabrous to densely glandular-setose. Leaves alternate, evergreen, margin entire or rarely obscurely denticulate, flat to tightly revolute, pinnately nerved. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, racemose to corymbose, few- to many-flowered, often viscid; pedicel bibracteolate. Flowers (5-) 7 (-8)-merous, mildly fragrant in B. aestuans ; aestivation imbricate; calyx continuous with pedicel, deeply lobed, campanulate; corolla of distinct, showy petals, these suberect and imbricate (hummingbird pollinated) or spreading (bee pollinated) at anthesis, soon deciduous; stamen twice as many as the petals or more (10--20), equal, about as long as the petals or slightly longer; filaments equal, distinct, elongate, basally densely pilose or tomentose; anthers equal, oblong-obconic, dorsifixed, slightly awned, obliquely 2-pored at the apex, lacking disintegration tissue; pollen with viscin threads; style glabrous, elongate and often bent to one side; stigma capitate, 7-grooved; ovary superior, glabrate, 6--7-locular, the numerous ovules borne on a conspicuous axile placenta. Fruit a subglobose capsule, septicidally 7-valvate from the apex; seeds winged or tailed.
A neotropical to subtropical genus of 15 species, ranging from Georgia and Florida (USA) to Cuba, and from Mexico south into Bolivia. The Ecuadorean species fall into two distinct groups-- those with petals spreading and those with petals imbricate. Within these two groups, however, the species are relatively difficult to distinguish and the more detailed descriptions of CLEMANTS (1995) should be consulted.