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The plant was found at 1780 meters on the western flank of the Volcan Irazu south of Rancho Redondo. It was in a small creek bed at the edge of forest along a rocky driveway to a gated private property. There was a large patch at various stages of maturity, but no seeds were found indicating the absence of the pollinator for this species. I am guessing we were either at too high an altitude or the natural pollinator is extinct. This species is obviously very near extinction as I have searched for it in many trips to Costa Rica.
Although not clearly shown in these photos, the characters match very nicely to Costus barbatus and to the exclusion of other described species, as explained in my article in the Heliconia Society International. Much of this is taken from notes I made on site. The ligules were 20-25 mm long and hairy. The petioles were about 8 mm long and hairy. The leaves were glabrescent on the upper sides and densely hairy on the undersides. The bracts were red and reflexed but not with distinct appendages. The bractetole and calyx were puberulous and the margins delacerated into fibers as described for C. barbatus. The corolla lobes were also puberulous, a character not very common in Costus. The stamen slightly exceeded the labellum.
NATURAL DISTRIBUTION:Costa Rica, along rivers and in wet forests. In Costa Rica, restricted to forests between 1300 and 1800 meters.
HEIGHT:1 to 2 meters
Plant Part | General | Color | Hairs | Texture | Shape | Length | Width |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rhizome | 0 to 0 cm | 0 to 0 cm | |||||
Sheath | | | sparsely to rather densely puberulous to villose | 0 to 0 cm | 10 to 17 mm | ||
Ligule | long, 15-40mm | sparsely to rather densely puberulous to villose | lobes rounded to obtuse, unequally 2 lobed | 15 to 30 mm | 0 to 0 mm | ||
Petiole | | | densely villose | | 6 to 12 mm | 0 to 0 mm | |
Leaf | | | narrowly elliptic | 13 to 26 cm | 4 to 8 cm | ||
...upper | | glabrescent | | | | ||
...under | | densely villose at base and costa | |||||
...base | | cunate to rounded | | ||||
...apex | shortly acuminate | 0 to 0 mm | |||||
Inflorescence | terminal on a leafy stem. | | | ovoid to fusiform | 4 to 10 cm | 2 to 4 cm | |
Bract | all bracts with foliaceous, green appendages, or apices of all bracts reflexed., margins fibers, no callus | red | sparsely to rather densely puberulous | margins delacerating into fibers,coriaceous | broadly ovate, apex acute | 3.0 to 4.0 cm | 2.0 to 4.0 cm |
Appendage | red | | | reflexed tips | 0.2 to 0.5 cm | 0.0 to 1.5 cm | |
Bracteole | margins dilacerating into fibers | | densely puberulous | margins delacerating into fibers | boat shape | 2.2 to 2.5 cm | 0.0 to 0.0 cm |
Flower | | | 0 to 0 cm | 0 to 0 cm | |||
Calyx | densely puberulous | margins delacerating into fibers | lobes shallow triangular | 1.3 to 1.5 cm | 0.0 to 0.0 cm | ||
Corolla | tube 15mm long | yellowish, orange at base | densely puberulous | | | 0.0 to 4.0 cm | 0.0 to 0.0 cm |
Labellum | small, tubular | yellow | | | trilobulate at apex, middle loge crenulate | 0.0 to 2.6 cm | 0.0 to 2.4 cm |
Stamen | slightly longer than labellum | yellow | | | 0.0 to 3.0 cm | 0.0 to 1.0 cm |