Ourisia fragrans
Ourisia fragrans is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae that is endemic to mountainous habitats of the Andes of southern Argentina and Chile. Rodolfo Amando Philippi described O. fragrans in 1864. This species can be distinguished from others in the genus Ourisia by the glandular hairs on all vegetative parts, a nearly regular corolla that is white, pink or purple, and its five fertile stamens of equal length.
Taxonomy
Ourisia fragrans is in the plant family Plantaginaceae. German-Chilean botanist Rodolfo Amando Philippi described O. fragrans in 1864.British plant collector Richard Pearce collected the type material of O. fragrans in the Chilean region of Los Lagos at Cordillear de Ranco. The holotype is housed at the Chilean National Museum of Natural History in Santiago .
Ourisia fragrans can be distinguished from other species of Ourisia by the combination of glandular hairs on all vegetative parts, a subregular corolla, and the five fertile stamens of equal length. By contrast, most other species of Ourisia have bilabiate corollas and four didynamous stamens.
The species epithet means "fragrant" or "scented" and the flowers have a pleasant scent.
Description
Ourisia fragrans plants are perennial, ascending to erect, subrosette herbs. The short stems are 0.9–2.7 mm wide, and glabrous or hairy with short glandular hairs. Leaves are opposite or tightly clustered in a subrosette, petiolate, 6.0–21.1 mm long by 4.5–16.0 mm wide. Leaf petioles are 4.2–26.9 mm long and sparsely to densely hairy with short glandular hairs. Leaf blades are ovate or broadly ovate, rarely narrowly ovate, widest below the middle, with a rounded or rarely subacute apex, cuneate base, and notched or crenate edges. Both surfaces of the leaf are usually densely hairy with a mixture of short glandular and non-glandular hairs, and the lower surface is also punctate. Inflorescences are ascending or erect, with hairy racemes up to 24 cm long, and with 1–4 flowering nodes and up to 7 or more total flowers per raceme. Each flowering node has 2 flowers and 2 bracts that are narrowly obovate, obovate, broadly obovate, lanceolate or narrowly ovate. The bracts are similar to the leaves but smaller and sometimes widest above the middle, 5.7–14.0 mm long and 4.0–8.7 mm wide and petiolate or sessile. The flowers are borne on a pedicel that is up to 22.8 mm long and sparsely to densely hairy with short glandular hairs. The calyx is 6.0–10.1 mm long, regular, with all 5 lobes equally divided to one-half to three-quarters the length of the calyx, each with 3 prominent purple veins and acute, glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy on the outside and margins with a mixture of short glandular and non-glandular hairs. The corolla is 15.8–19.7 mm long, regular, straight, tubular-funnelform, white, pink or purple, and glabrous or hairy with glandular hairs on the outside, and glabrous inside. The corolla lobes are 4.2–6.4 mm long, spreading or explanate, obcordate and deeply emarginate. There are 5 stamens which are of equal length, included or reaching the coreolla tube opening. The style is 1.7–3.5 mm long, included, with an emarginate or capitate stigma. The ovary is 0.6–3.2 mm long. Fruits are glabrous capsules with loculicidal dehiscence, and fruiting pedicels are 7.0–8.5 mm long. The number of seeds in each capsule is unknown, and seeds are 1.0–1.1 mm long and about 0.6 mm wide, elliptic, with a regular two-layered, reticulate seed coat with thick, smooth, shallow, primary reticula.Ourisia fragrans flowers from December to March and fruits in March.
The chromosome number of Ourisia fragrans is unknown.