Petunia altiplana

Description

Petunia altiplana is a plant species from thegenus Petunia (Petunia) in the nightshade family (Solanaceae). It is a perennial herb native tosouthern Brazil. Petunia altiplana is a perennial, herbaceous plant that grows decumbent, often forming mat-like cushions and rarely exceeding 5 cm in height. The stems are often branched, they are prostrate or pendulous from the base. They readily form adventitious roots on older parts. They are densely hairy with glandular trichomes about 1 mm long. The internodes are short and 2 to 15 (rarely up to 35) mm long. The main root is thick, straight and mostly unbranched. The foliage leavesare decumbent, broadly spatulate or occasionally obovate to circular. They reach a length of 10 to 25 (rarely up to 48) mm and a width of 5 to 15 (rarely up to 29) mm. They are sparsely hairy to glabrous, only on the edges and on the underside along the midrib they are always hairy. The base is pointed, sessile or almost sessile, the tip is always rounded. The flowers are on pedicels that are shorter than 10 mm and are densely glandular and hairy. The similar hairy calyx is split up to 2 to 3 mm above the base in five lineal segments. They are usually shorter than 10 mm, rarely they are up to 13 mm long. They are 1 to 2 mm wide and rounded at the top, they are not or only slightly protruding. the crownis 20 to 35 mm long including the crown lobes. The corolla tube is narrow, bell-shaped, tapering at the base and 15 to 20 (rarely up to 25) mm long. The inside is pale purple or whitish in color except for the veins, the outside is reddish purple and finely hairy, especially along the veins. The corolla lobes are reddish purple and divided into five circular sections. The five stamens come in three sizes: two long, two medium, and one short. All stamens are longer than the calyx, they are free from the second third of the corolla tube. The stamens are hairless and attach to the base of the corolla tube. The ovary is ovate, the style is slender and the slightly bilobed stigma stands between the anthers of the medium and long stamens. Petunia altiplana was first described as a distinct species by Toshio Ando and Goro Hashimoto in 1993. Previously collected specimens were mostly Petunia integrifolia subsp. assigned to depauperata, however, they differ from this in the prostrate habit, the pronounced adventitious roots and the prostrate leaves. The species epitheton indicates that the species is found exclusively in the highlands.