Ourisia cotapatensis
Ourisia cotapatensis is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae that is endemic to high-elevation habitats in the Tropical Andes mountains of the La Paz Department in Bolivia. Heidi Meudt and Stephan Georg Beck described O. cotapatensis in 2003. Plants of this species of South American foxglove are small, perennial, and repent herbs with opposite, anisophyllous, punctate, hairy leaves. There can be up to four flowers on a short raceme, and each flower has a regular calyx, and a violet, tubular-funnelform, bilabiate corolla with purple spots in the corolla tube and included stamens. The calyx is hairy on the outside, and the corolla has a ring of hairs at the tube opening as well as a line of hairs on the inside. This species is known only from Cotapata [National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area|Cotapata National Park], for which it is named.
Taxonomy
Ourisia cotapatensis Meudt & S.Beck is in the plant family Plantaginaceae. American-New Zealand botanist Heidi Meudt and German-Bolivian botanist Stephan Georg Beck described O. cotapatensis in 2003. It is known only from Cotapata National Park, for which it is named.The type material was collected by Beck in 1996 in the La Paz Department of Bolivia. The holotype is housed at the National Herbarium of Bolivia, with isotypes at the herbaria of the University of Texas at Austin, Botanische Staatssammlung München, New York Botanical Garden and the Higher University of San Simón.
Ourisia cotapatensis is one of five species of Ourisia in the Tropical Andes, together with O. muscosa, O. pulchella, O. chamaedrifolia, and O. biflora. All five species are in the herbaceous subgenus Ourisia. The violet, bilabiate corollas of Ourisia cotapatensis also differ from the corollas of the other Tropical Andean species, i.e. the red, bilabiate corollas of O. chamaedrifolia, the white, regular corollas of O. muscosa and O. biflora, and the white or pale violet, bilabiate corollas of O. pulchella.
Of the Tropical Andean species, O. cotapatensis is most similar to O. pulchella, with which it shares bilabiate corollas 1–2 cm long that are hairy inside, and leaves up to 1 cm long. It can be distinguished from O. pulchella by its violet, curved corollas that have purple spots that have a ring of hairs at the tube opening as well as a line of hairs between the two long stamens, all five calyx lobes divided equally to the base of the calyx, petioles that are usually glabrous, and leaves that are c. 2-5 mm long and evenly spaced along the creeping rhizome.
Ourisia cotapatensis has anisophyllous leaves, as do two other species of Ourisia from New Zealand, O. caespitosa and O. glandulosa, but no other South American species have this characteristic.
Description
Ourisia cotapatensis plants are perennial, repent herbs. The short stems are 0.5–1.1 mm wide, and glabrous or hairy with short non-glandular hairs. Leaves are opposite, spaced 1.0–7.5 mm apart, anisophyllous, petiolate, 1.9–5.4 mm long by 1.6–5.2 mm wide. Leaf petioles are 0.6–2.4 mm long and usually glabrous or sometimes hairy with short non-glandular hairs. Leaf blades are broadly ovate or very broadly ovate, widest below the middle, with a rounded or subacute apex, usually cuneate base, and irregularly notched edges. The upper surfaces of the leaves are hairy with short to long, sparsely to densely distributed non-glandular hairs, the lower surfaces are glabrous, and both surfaces are punctate. Inflorescences are ascending, with hairy racemes up to 39 mm long, and with 1–3 flowering nodes and up to 4 total flowers per raceme. Each flowering node has 1 flower and 2 petiolate to sessile bracts that are lanceolate to ovate. The bracts are similar to the leaves but hairier and smaller, 2.8–4.3 mm long and 1.3–2.4 mm wide. The flowers are borne on a pedicel that is up to 11.0 mm long and has densely distributed, short non-glandular hairs. The calyx is 3.9–5.9 mm long, regular, with all five lobes divided to the base of the calyx, sparsely to densely hairy with short non-glandular hairs on the outside of the calyx. The corolla is 19.1–21.0 mm long, bilabiate, curved, tubular-funnelform, violet, glabrous on the outside, and densely hairy inside at the tube opening and with a line of hairs between the two long stamens. The corolla lobes are 2.8–7.8 mm long, spreading, cordate or obcordate and emarginate. There are 4 stamens which are didynamous, with two long stamens reaching the tube opening, and two short stamens that are included; a short staminode is also present. The style is 7.4–8.4 mm long, included, with an capitate stigma. The ovary is 2.1–3.3 mm long and glabrous or with sessile glandular hairs. Fruits are capsules c. 4.0 mm long and c. 2.6 mm wide with loculicidal dehiscence. The number of seeds in each capsule is unknown, and seeds are c. 0.3 mm long and c. 0.1 mm wide.Ourisia cotapatensis flowers in October, November, and February, but its fruiting period is unknown.
The chromosome number of Ourisia cotapatensis is unknown.