Pernettya hirta (Willdenow) Sleumer, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 78: 478.  1959.  Andromeda hirta Willdenow, Enum. Hort. Bot.  Berol. Suppl. 23.  1813.  Type.  A specimen cultivated in the Berlin Botanical Garden from seed sent by Humboldt from Colombia, fr, (holotype, B-Willd. no. 8267).  Image:  Line-drawing.
    Gaultheria purpurascens Kunth in Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. gen. sp.3: 882.  1819.  Brossaea purpurascens (Kunth) O. Kuntze, Rev. gen.  pl. 2: 388.  1891.  Pernettya purpurascens (Kunth) A. C. Smith, J. Washington Acad. Sci. 4(3): 206. 1953.  Type.  Colombia.  Cundinamarca:  Páramo de Cruz Verde above Bogotá, Oct l802 (fr), Humboldt s.n. (holotype, P-H & B, photo NY neg. s.n.;   isotypes, B destroyed WW II, photo F neg. 4759, HAL, P).
         Low-growing shrub to 10 cm tall with branches decumbent or semiprostrate and rooting, bisexual;  twigs subterete, laxly grayish-white puberulent and densely hirsute-setulose with basally swollen, straight, multicellular, eglandular, hairs 1-3.2 mm long which are purplish or reddish-brown becoming grayish.  Leaves subcoriaceous, broadly to narrowly elliptic or oblong-elliptic, (6-)10-17 x (4-)5-8(-9) mm, base rounded to cuneate, apex acute, margin somewhat thickened and revolute, distally crenate-serrulate with 10-15 indistinct teeth per side these each bristle-tipped with multicellular hairs (as on twigs) to 3 mm long, densely hirsute-setose on both surfaces as twigs, drying olive-green above and purplish-brown beneath;  midrib plane to slightly impressed above, raised and prominent beneath, secondary veins impressed above and raised beneath but obscure;  petiole 1-2 mm long, hirsute-setose as twigs.  Flowers with pedicels (3-)6-9 mm long, puberulent and setose with crisped hairs, glabrate;  bracts 4-6 near base of the pedicel and 1-3 scattered nearly to the apex, narrowly to broadly ovate, 1.5-2 mm long, margin ciliate;  calyx lobes (4-)5, ovate, 2.5-3 mm long, acute to acuminate, glabrous but margin setulose along entire length with reddish hairs and distally white ciliate;  corolla urceolate, (4-)5-6 x 5-6 mm, white or pinkish becoming reddish, lobes (4-)5, ca. 1-1.3 mm long;  stamens (8-)10, filaments glabrous, ca. 2 mm long;  ovary globose, glabrous, minutely wrinkled.  Berry subglobose, 8-9 mm in diam., glabrous, dark blue-black when mature.

         Distribution (Map).  Endemic to Colombia (Dept. of Cundinamarca), and found in páramo and subpáramo, often with mosses along wet depressions, at elevations of 3150-3700 m;  extremely rare.  Flowering:  Aug-Jan;  fruiting:  Aug-Apr, Dec.  Rare and endangered.

        Cultivated:  E (?).