PLANT FAMILY: Costaceae BOTANICAL NAME: Costus spiralis var. villosus FORMAL SCIENTIFIC NAME: Costus spiralis (Jacq.) var. villosus (Maas) STATUS : CONTINENT: Neotropical SYNONYMS: BOTANICAL NOTES: Described by P. J. M. Maas in Flora Neotropica. SeePID 2372 for details. The only Costus spiralis plant I have found the meets the description of this variety is the one I found at Iwokrama in Guyana. There is a canopy walk that has been built there, and in the forest area around the canopy walk I found this plant growing on top of a large boulder. When it flowered in 2014 it was identified as Costus spiralis. The upper sidesof the leaves are glabrous (as in var. spiralis) but the lower sides have a dense mat of short soft hairs, so I assume this should be placed as var. villosus. OBSERVATION NOTES:Canopy Walk, Iwokrama, Guyana, Latitude 4.245, Longitude -58.905, at 95 meters elevation. |