Gaultheria insignis (R.C.Fang) P.W.Fritsch, 2023

Fritsch, Peter W., Armstrong, Kate E., Aung, Mu Mu, Fujikawa, Kazumi & Lu, Lu, 2023, Gaultheria (Ericaceae) of Myanmar: an updated species list for the country, a new species, and a new species combination, Phytotaxa 595 (1), pp. 37-61 : 43

12. Gaultheria insignis (R.C.Fang) P.W.Fritsch , comb. et stat. nov.

≡ Gaultheria griffithiana Wight var. insignis R.C. Fang (1999: 164) .

Type:— CHINA. Xizang: Zayü Xian , 2800 m, 18 July 1973, Qinghai-Xizang Complex Expedition 73-781 (lectotype, designated here, PE 00198242 !*, isotype PE 00198241 !*) .

Shrubs or trees 1–5 m tall. Branchlets flexuous, when young brown in sicco, narrowly 3-winged, 2.2–5.0 mm wide, glabrous; overwintering floral buds ovoid. Leaves: petioles 2.0–3.0 × 2.0– 2.4 mm, abaxially rounded, glabrous; blades oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 11.5–14.2 × 4.2–6.0 cm, 2.5–3.2 times as long as wide, coriaceous, abaxially light green to (in sicco) light brown and dark red- to black-setulose with setae conical and up to 0.1 mm long, adaxially deep green in vivo and light green in sicco, glabrous, midvein abaxially prominent, adaxially caniculate, secondary veins 9 to 12 on each side of midvein, not extending to margin, proximal secondary veins arcuate, distal secondary veins straight, perpendicular to midvein and meeting the distalmost arcuate veins, secondary and tertiary veins abaxially raised, adaxially planar to impressed, base shallowly cordate, sinus sharply angled and basal leaf blade lobes not or just reaching attachment point of petiole to stem or slightly below, margin regularly serrate with 73 to 93 strongly incurved teeth per side and with terminal setae borne at notch formed by the serration and margin, slightly revolute, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate, very tip with a gland. Inflorescences of axillary and pseudoterminal racemes from both proximal and distal leaf axils along branchlet, 1 per axil, placed below the leaves, 3.5 (not fully expanded)– 5.8 cm long, 11- to 19-flowered, flowers congested, pendulous; peduncle obscured by perules; peduncle and rachis ca. 1 mm wide, slightly angled, white-villous with trichomes up to ca. 1 mm long; perules persistent, broadly ovate to suborbicular, cucullate, 4.0–4.6 × 4.2–4.8 mm, glabrous or pubescent, margin ciliolate, apex rounded; bracts suborbicular to orbicular, cucullate, not keeled, 2.5–3.5 × 2.4–3.2 mm, white-sericeous-villous to -hirsute on both sides at least on basal half, margin ciliolate, apex acute to rounded. Pedicels 5–9 mm long, white-hirsute to -villous; bracteoles borne medially, suborbicular to ovate, keeled, 2.8–3.2 × 1.5–3.0 mm, abaxially glabrous or white-sericeous-villous to -hirsute on and near midvein, adaxially white-sericeous-villous, margin ciliolate, apex acute, often aristulate. Calyx 4.1–5.2 mm long, tube crateriform, glabrous, lobes 5, green in vivo, lanceolate-deltoid, 3.0–3.9 × 1.9–2.4 mm, outside glabrous, smooth, inside sericeous especially toward base, margin ciliolate, apex acute. Corolla white, in vivo globose or slightly depressed-globose, usually appearing campanulate in sicco because of splitting when pressed and dried, 6.5–7.7 × 5–6 mm, glabrous; lobes 5, lanceolate-deltoid, 0.5–0.8 × 0.7–0.9 mm. Stamens 10; filaments ca. 1.5–2.0 mm long, dilated submedially, glabrous; anthers without tubules, cells 1.1–1.7 mm long, awns 2 per theca, 0.6–0.8 mm long. Nectar disk 10-dentate. Ovary white-sericeous-lanate, trichomes up to 0.3 mm long; style 2.3–2.7 mm long, glabrous. Fruit unknown.