Erect or rarely clambering shrub, (0.3-)1-3(-5) m tall and to 7.5 cm diam.; mature stems terete, striate, glabrous or rarely puberulent, and also usually weakly strigose;  bark reddish-brown to grayish, thin, often exfoliating in strips;  twigs subterete often complanate or ribbed, puberulent and/or pubescent with white hairs, also with appressed to spreading, setose-hirsute, straight or crisped, ferruginous, base swollen, eglandular hairs to ca. 2 mm long (also with short, gland-tipped setae 0.2 mm long);  buds ovate, 1-2.5 mm long, scales reddish-brown, short-pilose.  Leaves usually ascending when young but with a strong tendency to be reflexed later along mature stems, blades broadly ovate (nearly rotund), elliptic to ovate, (0.5-)1.5-2.5(-3) x (0.2-)1-2(-3.3) cm, base rounded and subcordate, or obtuse, apex acute to obtuse or short-acuminate (nearly rounded), margin crenate to serrate with each tooth terminating in a short-setose (gland-tipped) hair, lamina flat to slightly revolute adaxially, essentially glabrous but normally short-pilose only at base of midrib and onto petiole (short-pilose over entire surface then glabrate, also at very base along midrib possessing short, gland-tipped setae ca. 0.2 mm long), abaxially glabrous or more commonly sparingly short-strigose with basally swollen, eglandular hairs, sometimes also with scattered, short (ca. 0.2 mm long), gland-tipped setae; midrib, lateral, and reticulate veinlets plane and obscure to raised and conspicuous above, raised and conspicuous beneath;  petiole subterete, broadly flattened, and canaliculate above, 1-2(-4) mm long, short-pilose above and also deciduously short-strigose beneath with setose hairs as on twigs (also with up to 0.2 mm long, black, clavate, gland-tipped setae in var. elassantha).  Inflorescence with flowers solitary towards branch tips, in axils of usually reduced leaves, the leaves sometimes becoming nearly bract-like (i.e., 5 x 2 mm); pedicels subterete, slightly striate, (4-)5-8(-17) mm long at anthesis, elongating to 10-17 mm long in fruit, weakly to densely puberulent or short-pilose (or puberulence lacking) and also weakly to densely strigose with hairs short (ca. 0.3 mm long), straight, and gland-tipped, or longer (to 1.5 mm long) and then straight to crisped and eglandular, the indumentum in nearly any combination or with one or more types lacking;  bracteoles 2-9 along basal half of pedicel, ovate to ovate-elliptic, 1.5-3.5 x 1.5-2.5 mm, acute, the lowest usually adaxially densely pilose becoming more glabrous distally (glabrous on lamina but always ciliate);  floral bract similar to bracteoles but nearly always pilose.  Flowers with calyx 3-5 mm long, lobes ovate, (1.8-)3-3.5 x (1.7-)2-2.5 mm, acute to acuminate, glabrous to distally short-pilose without and distally sparsely to densely short-pilose within, ciliate to ciliolate and often also marginally glandular-fimbriate;  corolla urecolate, cylindric-urceolate, to rotate-campanulate (basally gibbous), (4-)5-6.5 x (2.5-)4-5(-7) mm, glabrous, weakly short-pilose, or moderately pilose without (scattered short-pilose within), white to pale yellowish-green, lobes ovate, to 1.6 mm long, obtuse; stamens (2.5-)3-4 mm long;  filaments (1.6-)2.3-3.3 mm long, glabrous to densely pilose;  anthers 0.7-1.3 mm long, awns conspicuous;  ovary nearly glabrous to densely short-pilose;  style (2-)3.5-4.8 mm long, glabrous to short-pilose proximally.  Fruiting calyx globose when fresh but turbinate when dry, (5-)6-10 mm diam., blue-black.

     Distribution.  Found from Venezuela to Colombia and then disjunct to Peru and Bolivia on wet roadside banks, open páramo hillsides, forest edge, scrubby slopes, in grass páramo and ceja to grass-steppe at elevations of (1300-)2000-3400(-4000) m.  Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.
 

                 Key to the Varieties of Gaultheria buxifolia

1.  Corolla white, urceolate, broadest at the base, not gibbous when
     fresh, sometimes pilose;  ovary densely short-pilose;  Venezuela
     to south-central Colombia (not Antioquia or Tolima) ........  var. buxifolia
1.  Corolla pale yellowish-green, rotate-campanulate, broadest at
     mouth, gibbous at base when fresh, glabrous;  ovary weakly
     short-pilose to glabrous;  Colombia and Peru to Bolivia.
     2.  Petioles with short-setose glandular hairs (0.2 mm long) adaxially
          and onto the adjacent midrib of the blade; floral bracts and
          bracteoles 2-3, with surface glabrous, but margin ciliate;  pedicels
          nearly lacking pilose hairs but often with glandular setae;  margins of
          calyx lobes and bracteoles sometimes glandular-fimbriate;
          Colombia (Antioquia and Tolima) ............................... var. elassantha
     2.  Petioles without short glandular hairs adaxially;  floral bracts
         and bracteoles ca. 5, surface pilose and margin ciliate;  pedicels
         densely pilose, and also with eglandular (rarely glandular)
         setae;  margins of calyx lobes eglandular;  south-central Peru
         to northern Bolivia ..........................................................  var. secunda
 

Gaultheria buxifolia Willdenow var. buxifolia.  Image:  Habit. Line-drawing.
 

Gaultheria pubescens Fedtschenko & Basilevskaja, Notulae Syst. Herb. Horti. Bot. U.S.S.R. 6: 22.  1926.  Type.  Colombia.  Cauca:  Popayán, 1800 m, 16 Aug 1881, Lehmann 822 (lectotype, LE, n.v., xerox of LE sheet at NY;  isolectotypes, G, K, US, photo NY neg. 12071).

     Erect or rarely clambering shrub.  Petioles and midrib of leaf lamina eglandular above.  Floral bract and bracteoles 3-9, usually lamina densely pilose becoming glabrate, always distally ciliate;  pedicels weakly to densely puberulent (or puberulence lacking) or short-pilose, and also weakly to densely strigose, eglandular.  Calyx lobes ciliate and often also marginally glandular-fimbriate;  corolla urceolate to cylindric-urceolate, not gibbous at base, glabrous (weakly short-pilose or moderately pilose) without, white; stamens 3-4 mm long;  filaments 2.3-3.3 mm long, glabrous to densely pilose; anthers 0.7-1.3 mm long;  ovary usually densely short-pilose;  style 3.5-4.8 mm long, glabrous to short-pilose basally.

     Distribution (Map).  Ranging from central coastal Venezuela to southern Colombia where it is common in páramo and at higher elevation montane forests.  Commonly in association with Gaultheria glomerata, G. hapalotricha, G. alnifolia, and Pernettya prostrata at elevations of (1750-)2200-3400(-3800) m.  Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.

     Common names and uses.  Venezuela:  albricias (Mérida).  Colombia:  mortiño (Antioquia), machimbí (Cauca), uvito (Huila, Norte de Santander), uvo, pegajoso (Norte de Santander).

    Cultivated:  E.
 

Gaultheria buxifolia Willdenow var. elassantha (A. C. Smith) Luteyn, Brittonia 41: 13.  1989.   Gaultheria elassantha A. C. Smith, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 29: 339.  1950.  Type.  Colombia.  Antioquia:  La Sierra, 18 km N of Medellín, 2000 m, Jan 1931 (fl), Archer 1499 (holotype, US, photo NY neg. 12067;  isotype, MEDEL).  Image:  Habit.

     Erect to clambering shrub.  Petioles and midrib of leaf lamina adaxially glandular with black, minute (0.2 mm long), clavate setae.  Floral bract and bracteoles 3, with surface glabrous, but ciliate;  pedicels glabrous or only weakly puberulent and often with gland-tipped setae.  Calyx lobes ciliate and often also marginally glandular-fimbriate;  corolla rotate-campanulate,  gibbous at base, glabrous, pale yellowish-green;  stamens ca. 2.6 mm long;  filaments ca. 1.6 mm long, glabrous;  anthers ca. 1.3 mm long;  ovary glabrous or nearly so; style 2-2.6 mm long, glabrous.

     Distribution (Map).  Found only in the montane forest and páramo of the departments of Antioquia and Tolima, Colombia at elevations of 2000-3120 m. Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.

     Common names and uses.  Colombia:  mortiño, mortiño venenoso (Antioquia).
 

Gaultheria buxifolia Willdenow var. secunda (Remy) Luteyn, Brittonia 41: 13. 1989.  Gaultheria secunda Remy, Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. III, 8: 231. 1847.  Brossea secunda (Remy) O. Kuntze, Rev. gen. pl. 2: 388. 1891.  Type.  Bolivia.  Yungas:  Chupe, D'Orbigny 395 (holotype, P, frags. F and NY;  isotypes, G, photo F neg. 26630, W).  SEM of seed.

     Erect shrub.  Petioles and midrib of leaf lamina adaxially eglandular.  Floral bract and bracteoles ca. 5, with surface pilose and ciliate;  pedicels densely puberulent to short-pilose and also with eglandular, strigose hairs or rarely gland-tipped setae.  Calyx lobes ciliate but marginally eglandular; corolla rotate-campanulate,  gibbous at base, glabrous, pale yellowish-green; stamens ca. 2.5 mm long;  filaments ca. 2 mm long, glabrous;  anthers ca. 1 mm long;  ovary weakly short-pilose or glabrous;  style 2-3 mm long, glabrous.

     Distribution (Map).  Found in ceja and grass-steppe areas of south-central Peru to northern Bolivia at elevations of 2000-3400 m.  Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.