Erect shrub 0.2-1 m tall; mature stems subterete, bluntly ridged, glabrous; bark thin, cracking longitudinally, grayish- to reddish-brown; twigs subterete, striate, ridged, glabrous to puberulent, or densely spreading to ascending hirsute with hairs to 3 mm long, sometimes also bearing scattered gland-tipped setae to 0.5 mm long, reddish-brown. Leaves thick-coriaceous, narrowly ovate, or elliptic to oblong, (2-)3.5-5(-6.5) x (1-)1.4-2.5(-3.4) cm, base rounded, rarely truncate, apex short-acuminate and sometimes bluntly mucronate, conspicuously bluntly serrate with each tooth terminating in a tiny (0.2-1 mm long) or elongate (to 2 mm long), often deciduous, gland-tipped seta, nitid, essentially glabrous or somewhat punctate beneath from persistent bases of tiny (0.2-0.8 mm long), gland-tipped setae scattered only along the midrib and veins, or also hirsute with hairs to 2 mm long, the lamina usually ± bullate and concave to revolute, bicolorous (i.e., leaves drying darker above than beneath); midrib, lateral nerves (3-4 per side), and reticulate veinlets of a lighter color than lamina when dry, plane or more commonly slightly raised above (impressed), conspicuously raised beneath; petiole subterete, shallowly canaliculate above, 2-3 mm long, glabrous or with few gland-tipped setae, reddish-brown. Inflorescence axillary, racemose, congested and barely exceeding the leaves at anthesis, ca. (11-)15-20-flowered; rachis subterete, complanate, angled, 3-5 cm long, densely white puberulent to short-pilose and sometimes also with few to many, scattered, gland-tipped setae to 0.4 mm long, surrounded at the base by a series of ovate, keeled, striate, mucronate, glabrous but ciliolate bracts to 4.3 mm long; pedicels terete, striate, 4-8 mm long but elongating to 10 mm after anthesis, pubescent as rachis; bracteoles located at base or along lower one-third of pedicel, striate, ovate to linear-ovate, 3-4.5 x 0.7-1 mm, acuminate, ± glabrous but marginally ciliolate and glandular-fimbriate; floral bract coriaceous, conspicuously striate, ± cochleariform, often caducous, ovate to oblanceolate, 5-7(-9) x 2.5-4.5 mm, acute, ± glabrous but marginally ciliolate and short glandular-fimbriate. Calyx (4-)4.5-5 mm long, lobes broadly ovate, (2.7-)3.5-4 x 2.2-2.5 mm, acuminate, glabrous or puberulent at tips within, ciliolate or marginally glandular-fimbriate proximally and ciliolate distally; corolla urceolate, terete or bluntly 5-angled, 5-7 x ca. 4 mm, glabrous (or short-pilose at base), red when fresh, lobes ovate, 1-1.5(-2) mm long, obtuse; stamens 4.7-5 mm long; filaments 3-4 mm long, glabrous; anthers 1.1-1.7 mm long, the awns short to very short; ovary densely short-pilose; style ca. 3-4 mm long, glabrous or puberulent. Fruiting calyx ca. 1 cm diam., blue-black.
Distribution (Map).
Found only at high-elevation habitats from western Venezuela to central
Ecuador, in wet páramo,
Polylepis-scrub, páramo thicket,
and "pedregales" at elevations of (3250-)3500-4000 m elevation. Flowering
and fruiting most frequently from Sep through Jan.
Key to the Varieties of Gaultheria sclerophylla
1. Branchlets glabrous or at most puberulent; leaves glabrous
beneath
or merely short-glandular-setose; calyx
lobes both ciliolate and
glandular-fimbriate; Venezuela-S Colombia
................ var. sclerophylla
1. Branchlets densely spreading to ascending hirsute; leaves
hirsute
beneath as well as shortly glandular-setose;
calyx lobes only
ciliolate; Colombia/Ecuador border to
C Ecuador ................ var. hirsuta
Gaultheria sclerophylla Cuatrecasas var. sclerophylla. Image: Habit with fruits.
Branchlets glabrous or at most puberulent. Leaves glabrous beneath or merely short-glandular-setose. Calyx lobes both ciliolate and marginally glandular-fimbriate.
Distribution (Map).
Collected once in extreme western Venezuela and then scattered to southern
Colombia. Rare.
Gaultheria sclerophylla Cuatrecasas var. hirsuta Luteyn, Brittonia 41: 11. 1989. Type. Ecuador. Imbabura: Ibarra to Mariano Acosta rd., 30 km E of Panamerican Hwy., 0°20'N, 78°3'W, 3680 m, 12 Jan 1985 (fl, fr), Luteyn & Cotton 11022 (holotype, NY; isotypes, AAU, CAS, COL, GB, MO, QCA, US). Images: Habit. Flowers. Line-drawing.
Branchlets densely spreading to ascending hirsute but not appressed-strigose. Leaves hirsute beneath as well as short-glandular-setose. Calyx lobes only ciliolate.
Distribution (Map).
Known from southern Colombia south to the Cordillera Llanganates of central
Ecuador. Rare.
