Paepalanthus subsect. Cryptanthella Suess.

Hensold, Nancy, 2016, The Andean Paepalanthus pilosus complex (Eriocaulaceae): a revision with three new taxa, PhytoKeys 64, pp. 1-57 : 13

Paepalanthus subsect. Cryptanthella Suess.

Paepalanthus subsect. Cryptanthella Suess., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 72(2): 293. 1942.

Type.

Paepalanthus kupperi Suess.

Plants cespitose or pulviniform, forming densely branched clumps with erect terminal shoots ca. 1-4 cm; inflorescences solitary, terminal, but soon overtopped by one or two sympodial branches; peduncle sheaths scarious, swollen at apex, usually splitting into two or three triangular segments; involucral bracts pale greenish to gold or blackish-brown, pilose, not or barely surpassing flowers. Trichomes of the involucral bract and sepal apices subacute to rounded at apex, tuberculate; apical trichome tuft of bracts and sepals relatively short, surpassing perianth tip by less than 0.2 mm. Pistillate flowers peripheral, the outer subtended by the broad inner bracts of the involucre; staminate flowers central or rarely ( Paepalanthus lodiculoides ) the whole capitulum staminate; the inner flowers subtended by linear receptacular bracts, these often with sub-cucullate tips and carinate-clasping bases; pistillate flowers pedicellate; the petals usually long pilose abaxially with tuberculate trichomes disposed in submarginal bands in the upper 1/2 to 2/3 of petal, and also in two dense tufts just inside the upper margin either side of the apex and securing the stigma, the petal tips not involute after anthesis. Gynoecium with stigmas simple; stigmatic nectaries colorless to reddish or dark brown, usually with a distinctly broadened large-papillate upper rim, the papillae in the basal two-thirds or more usually indistinct and scattered. Staminate flower corolla with anthophore usually at least half the total corolla length, membranous or fleshy, corolla tube with three subacute lobes, non-involute after anthesis; staminal filaments prominently fleshy below the corolla lobes and often (not always) adnate to corolla, flat and membranous distally, the tips sometimes turning red-brown with age; anthers whitish, exsert above the lobes, not retracted after anthesis, and often deciduous. Seeds with longitudinal rows of hygroscopic pseudotrichomes.