Codonoboea elata (Ridl.) Rafidah, 2011

Rafidah, A. R., Kiew, R. & Haron, N. W., 2011, To which genus does the enigmatic Peninsular Malaysian Chirita elata (Gesneriaceae) belong?, Blumea 56 (1), pp. 18-20 : 19

Codonoboea elata (Ridl.) Rafidah , comb. nov.

Basionym: Chirita elata Ridl., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 23 (1896) 518; (1905) 57; (1923) 524; M.R.Hend. (1959) 349; D. Wood (1974) 189. — Type: Ridley 2911 (lectotype BM; isolectotype SING), Peninsular Malaysia, Perak, Maxwell’s Hill (Bukit Larut) .

Bushy, caulescent, perennial herb, branching from the base. Stems green, quadrangular, up to 50 cm tall, 6 – 8 mm diam, becoming woody, glabrous, hairy or bristly; internodes swollen, up to 7.5 cm long, hispid at the nodes with red-brown reflexed hairs. Leaves opposite, decussate; petioles green, sometimes maroon, up to 5.5 cm long; lamina ovate, sometimes elliptic or broadly elliptic, (5–)10–15.6 by (2.5–) 4– 8 cm, pale green to yellowish above, whitish green beneath, fleshy in life, chartaceous when dry, eglandular hairy above, predominantly glandular hairy on the veins of the lower surface, base rounded to slightly decurrent or cuneate, sometimes unequal, margin serrulate, apex acute or acuminate; midrib sunken above, prominent beneath, lateral veins 10–20 pairs, intercostal veins scalariform. Inflorescences cymose, axillary, 2 per axil, each with up to 6 flowers; peduncles, bracts and pedicels green or maroon with reflexed red-brown hairs; peduncles slender, 2 – 6 cm long, not fused to the petiole; bracts paired, opposite, free, narrowly triangular, c. 3 mm long; pedicels 5 –18 mm long. Flowers: calyx green, 8–10 by 4– 5 mm, 5-lobed, divided to the base, lobes narrowly triangular, margin ciliate, outer surface eglandular hairy; corolla reddish purple or dark purple, narrowly infundibular, lobes darker red than the corolla tube, throat dark yellow, outside slightly hairy, tube up to 4 cm long, narrow in the lower part, slightly inflated, c. 1.5 cm wide across the mouth, lobes 5, 5 –6 by 2– 4 mm; stamens 2, inserted 12 –15 mm from the base of the corolla, filaments white, 9 –12 mm long, curved, anthers white, anther-thecae divergent, 2– 3 mm long, fused face-to-face; staminodes 3, white, inserted c. 6 mm from the base of the corolla tube, c. 2 mm long; nectary very pale yellow, a shallowly lobed ring, 2 –2.5 mm deep; pistil pale green to cream, densely pubescent with predominantly eglandular reddish hairs, ovary c. 2.5 cm long, 0.5 mm wide at the base, style cream, 1–1.4 cm long, narrowing to 0.1 mm below the flattened stigma, stigma red or maroon, peltate, entire, up to 1 mm diam, papillose, ovules cream, less than 1 mm long, c. 2 mm diam. Capsules green, cylindrical, very slender, 6.5 –7 cm long, 1–2 mm wide, red hairy, often appearing not to dehisce until the fruit wall begins to disintegrate between the ribs; calyx persistent, green. Seeds (immature) white, many, outer surface striated.

Ecology — Lower montane forest, in deep shade often on earth slopes above streams, at 700 –1000 m altitude.

Specimens examined. PERAK, Bukit Larut FR, Burkill SFN 12990 (SING), Curtis 2038 (SING), Curtis s.n. (SING), Haniff SFN 2353 (SING), Sinclair SFN 38713 (SING), Spare 2052 (SING), Wray 2038 (SING), Wray 2985 (SING), Kiew RK 5318 (KEP), Rafidah FRI 64321 (KEP); Gunung Bubu, Syahida FRI 59486 (KEP).

Note — Recent collections made under the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia Project have discovered that this species is found in a similar habitat on the nearby hill of Gunung Bubu, also in Perak.