Gunnera densiflora

Detailed description

Creeping, stoloniferous, Dioecious, herb forming compact cushions. Stolons much branched, partially buried, fleshy, succulent, up to 3 m long, 1.9–3.1 mm diameter, internodes 30–50 mm long, exposed parts pinkish-red, pink or greenish-red, densely clad in wispy, cob-webbed silky hairs. Leaves in compact, moderately tight, leafy overlapping rosettes; petioles stout, succulent, ± winged, 10–30 × 1.5–2.4 mm, pink, pinkish-red, or greenish-red, concave, ± channelled, and sparsely silky hairy above, glabrate to glabrous below, wider at base, slightly widening toward cuneate leaf base, lamina membranous to subcoriaceous, 10–46 × 15–38 mm, obovate, broadly obovate, ovate to oblong, elliptic to suborbicular, apex sub-acute to acute, cuneate, truncate to subcordate at base, round at apex, margins mostly crenate-crenulate, (rarely slightly sinuate), usually dentate near base, teeth ovate , oblong, obtuse, or acute, 0.8–1.8 mm, initially apiculate, apiculus caducous, green to dark green, sometimes mottled or flushed pink, upper and lower surface glabrate to glabrous, hairs sparse, mostly confined to midrib and veins in lower ¼ of lamina. Inflorescence an ebracteate, erect, fleshy, stout, spike up to 70 mm tall in male, 30 mm in female, located within leaf axils, peduncle and rachis silky hairy, hairs often matted: flowers 12–40 (or more) spiralled, widely spaced to ± crowded, glabrous, proximal flowers pedicellate grading through to sessile in distal portion; calyx lobes 0–2 (mostly present in distal portion of spike), lobes 0.9–2.5 × 0.4–1.2 mm, equal, linear-lanceolate, lanceolate to spathulate, subentire or dentate, glabrous; sepals much reduced or absent, 0.1–0.2 × 0.01–0.1 mm, oblong, glabrous, caducous, petals similar; male flowers: stamens 1–2, subsessile to sessile, filaments 0.2–0.9 mm, anthers pale yellow, gynoecium rudimentary; female flowers similar to male, stamens reduced to staminodes or absent, ovary 0.2–0.4 × 0.1–0.2 mm, urceolate, greenish-white, hyaline, glabrous, styles 2, prominent, widely spreading, 1.0–3.2 mm, subulate-filiform; stigmas papillate . Fruiting spike erect, up to 30 mm long; drupes widely spaced to densely clustered, fleshy, pendulous, 2.8–3.2 mm, obconic, pyriform or clavate, dark red. Endocarp 1.3–2.6 mm, oblong-elliptic, elliptic, dull orange-yellow, yellow or orange-brown, ± smooth.