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Key to Species

     Terrestrial shrub.  Leaves alternate, evergreen, congested, short-petiolate, the blade coriaceous, with the margins often strongly recurved;  venation pinnate.  Inflorescence axillary, the flowers solitary or in pairs, or 2-5-racemose.  Flowers 5-merous;  aestivation valvate;  pedicel bibracteolate;  calyx articulate with pedicel; hypanthium cylindric or campanulate;  limb erect;  corolla carnose, cylindric to urceolate-subcylindric;  stamens 10, equal, nearly as long as corolla;  filaments equal, elongate, longer than the anthers, at first weakly adherent to the corolla but soon free;  anthers equal, basifixed;  thecae strongly granular;  tubules erect, distinct, slightly shorter than thecae, dehiscing by wide, extrorse clefts;  style about as long as corolla.  Fruit a berry.

Key to Neotropical Species                                                                                               Back to Top

1.  Leaf blades orbicular to broadly suborbicular-ovate, rounded at both ends.
     2.  Corolla red, glabrous without; calyx essentially glabrous with only the lobes
          ciliate; lower leaf surface sparsely pilosulous to glabrate ..............  N. cardonae.
     2.  Corolla pale green with copious pale ferruginous tomentum; calyx
          completely covered by dense ferrruginous tomentum; lower leaf surface
          densely ferruginous tomentellose ............................................ N. chimantensis.
1.  Leaf blades sublanceolate to ovate or narrowly suborbicular-ovate, acute,
     obtuse, or narrowed at one or both ends.
     3.  Corolla narrowly cylindric, dark red; calyx glabrous; lower leaf surface
          glabrous ...................................................................................  N. smithiana.
     3.  Corolla deeply campanulate-infundibuliform to urceolate-subcylindric,
          pale cream, greenish-white, or salmon-rose; calyx densely tomentose;
          lower leaf surface with a close tomentum or softly pilose.
          4.  Lower leaf surface dark rusty-brown or ferruginous to grayish-brown
               with a dense tomentum; corolla pale cream or greenish-white, externally
               uniformly densely pubescent;  leaf blades acute to subacuminate at apex
               ....................................................................................... N. schomburgkii.
          4.  Lower leaf surface pale green with sparse pubescence of minute,
               trichomes; corolla salmon-rose, externally glabrous except for patches
               of pubescence in upper half;  leaf blades obtuse to subacute at apex
               .................................................................................... N. auyantepuiensis.

    This version comes from James Luteyn's unpublished notes. The reader is referred to tthe taxonomic treatment by Steyermark (1967).

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