Cyrtandra harveyi Seem.

• Authority

  Gillett, George W. 1967. The genus Cyrtandra in Fiji. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 37: 107-159.

• Family

  Gesneriaceae

• Scientific Name

  Cyrtandra harveyi Seem.

• Type

  Type locality: Nandi, Mbua, Vanua Levu, Fiji. Type collected by Harvey, cited below.

• Description

  
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  Description - Shrub 1-4 m. high with perfect or unisexual flowers and dark brown, septate, uniseriate, noncapitate hairs ca. 20µ in diameter and up to 0.5 mm. long, the pubescence dense and closely appressed on younger parts, sparse on mature foilage; leaves opposite, the petioles 2-9 cm. long, the blades lanceolate to ovate, up to 25 cm. long and 9 cm. wide, unequal and rounded to acute or cuneate at base, acute to acuminate at apex, serrate, above with appressed, upwardly directed parallel hairs, beneath with moderate to dense pubescence of spreading hairs; inflorescences bearing 1-3 flowers, the peduncles 3-15 mm. long, pubescent, very short and slender on older stems, longer and thicker on young shoots, terminated by caducous, lanceolate bracts 2-3 mm. long subtending pedicels 5-12 mm. long; calyx caducous, greenish white, fleshy, drying subcoriaceous, ca. 7 mm. long, cleft nearly half its length into 5 ovate to lanceolate, acuminate, free or connivent lobes, with 1 or more of the sinuses often lacerated, the tube and lobes with scattered, conspicuous, dark brown hairs without, glabrous within; corolla white, 2.5-3 cm. long, funnelform, slightly curved, and cleft ca. 0.125 of its length into rounded, unequal lobes, the tube and lobes with conspicuous capitate hairs ca. 30µ in diameter and 0.33 mm. long without, glabrous within; filaments of bisexual flowers ca. 8 mm. long and adnate 3 mm. below the sinuses of the anterior corolla lobe, bearing 2 apically coherent anthers in the broad corolla throat; staminodes 3, 1 mm. long, adnate ca. 7 mm. below the posterior sinuses, the median staminode borne ca. 1 mm. above the laterals; cupulate annular disc prominent, ca. 1 mm. high clasping a stalk, or gynophore ca. 1.5 mm. long, this expanding upward to the base of the ovary; ovary and style 1.7-2 cm. long, the ovary glabrous, the style with short, capitate hairs over its entire length, exserted 2-3 mm. above the corolla throat, separating 1-5 mm. above the apex of the mature ovary, the stigma applanate, shallowly bilobed; fruit white, ellipsoid, ca. 2 cm. long and 1 cm wide. In female flowers (Smith 367, all cited specimens) both stamens and staminodes are absent and the style and ovary are 2-2.3 cm. long. The style is 1 mm. in diameter, much thicker than in bisexual flowers, and is exserted 3-4 mm. above the throat of the corolla.

• Discussion

  The affinity of Cyrtandra harveyi clearly is with C. coleoides. Both species have distinctive morphological features not known in other Fijian Cyrtandrae. These include the peculiar stalk, or gynophore, at the base of the ovary, the exserted style, and the long (8-15 mm.), exposed filaments. The presence of gynodioecious flowers in this species is unique in Fiji; however, the occurrence of unisexual flowers in Cyrtandra is known in at least 16 species from New Guinea, 2 from Borneo, and 1 from Hawaii. Lauterbach placed the unisexual material in a separate genus, Cyrtandropsis, which Burtt (1936) considers untenable.

• Common Names

  merikula