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124 FIELDIANA: BOTANY, VOLUME 28
colonies and masses on wet bluffs, along base of south-facing sandstone
bluffs, Ptari-tepul, state of Bolivar, alt. 2410 m., November 6,
1944, Julian A. Steyermark 59914. The collector notes that it is one
of the commonest species on the bluffs. It resembles P Killipii
Moldenke, from Colombia, in habit, but is abundantly distinct in
characters of the leaves, peduncles, and flowers.
Paepalanthus squamiliferus Moldenke, sp. nov.
Herba caulescens; caulibus usque ad 9 cm. longis dense foliosis;
foliis firme membranaceis erecto-patentibus 3.5-4 cm. longis, 2.5-4
mm. latis, acutis multistriatis non fenestratis utrinque glabris;
vaginis anguste cylindricis adpressis tortis ca. 6 cm. longis multistriatis
glabris, apice piloso-ciliato; pedunculis solitariis usque ad
40 cm. longis 5-costatis, parce pilosis, pilis irregulariter patentibus
vel reflexis.
Caulescent herb; stems to about 9 cm. long, very leafy, completely
hidden by the leaf-bases; leaves firmly membranous, grass-green,
erect-spreading, grass-like, 3.5-4 cm. long-, 2.5-4 ram. wide at the
mid-point, acute, many-striate, not fenestrate, glabrous on both surfaces;
sheath greatly surpassing the leaves, narrowly cylindric, appressed
to the peduncles, twisted, about 6 cm. long, many-striate,
glabrous except for the more or less pilose-ciliate apex, obliquely
split at the apex, the blade erect, closely appressed, ovate, 0.5-1.5
cm. long, ciliate-margined when young, glabrous in age; peduncles
solitary at the apex of each stem, to about 40 cm. long, sparsely
pilose with irregularly spreading or retrorse white hairs, 5-costate;
heads hemispheric or almost spherical, about 1.5 cm. in diameter,
gray; involucral bractlets variable in size and shape, the outermost
very dark brown or blackish, broadly elliptic, about 4.5 mm. long and
3 mm. wide, the inner ones oblong, slightly wider near the apex,
dark-brownish, lighter toward the margins, about 4 mm. long and 1.5
mm. wide, acute at the apex, all rather sparsely long-villous in a
central band on the back with more or less appressed antrorse hairs;
receptacle long-villous; receptacular bractlets oblong or elliptic,
about 34 mm. long and 0.8 mm. wide, usually more or less conduplicate-navicular,
acute, long-villous in a median band on the back;
staminate florets: sepals 3, connate only at the very base, erect,
light-brownish, elliptic, about 3.5 mm. long and 1 mm. wide, obtuse
at the apex, densely villous toward the apex on the back, not bearded,
not glanduliferous; petals 3, connate into a slender tube about 4 mm.
l n gi glabrous, not ampliate above, the separate lobes narrowly
oblong, erect, 3-3.5 mm. long and 0.5 mm. wide, short-bearded at the
apex, not involute, not glanduliferous; stamens 3, inserted at the
mouth of the corolla-tube; filaments about 2.5 mm. long, black,
glabrous; anthers not seen; pistillate florets: sepals 3, separate to
the base, brown, broadly elliptic, about 3.4 mm. long and 1.9 mm.
wide, acute, brownish, long-villous in a median band on the back, the
margins lighter and usually conduplicate, not bearded, subtending a
great mass of long, erect, villous hair; petals 3, separate to the base,