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Common name: 

Latin name and synonyms: Neblinantha Maguire (1985: 311)

Etymology: Neblinantha is named after the mountain this group is found on, Sierra de la Neblina, one of the tepui mountains on the border between Brazil and Venezuela. The ending '-antha' means flower.

Species:   Two species, both very rare.

Distribution: This genus is only found on the mountain Sierra de la Neblina on the Brazilian-Venezuelan border in northern South America.

Habitat:  

Characteristics: Semi-woody herbs or shrubs. Leaves rather small, sessile to subsessile, ovate-lanceolate . Flowers solitary, sometimes appearing axillary, but are terminal, 4–5-merous, actinomorphic. Calyx thin, tubular, divided about halfway down; lobes narrowly triangular, long-acuminate. Corolla deep pink to coral-colored, salvershaped or narrowly funnelshaped, thin; lobes circular or triangular. Stamens inserted in corolla tube; filaments sometimes bent 180 degrees at apex; anther with small, sterile apical appendage. Pollen in tetrads. Gynoecium probably without glandular disk; style long, slender; stigma bilamellate, narrow lobes. Fruit erect or nodding capsules, apical dehiscence. Seeds angular, unwinged.

Evolution and related plants: This genus belongs to the tribe Helieae.

Economic uses:  None known.

Notes: Both species if Neblinantha have been collected/seen only a few times, and this is a very poorly known genus.

Accepted species (synonyms in parenthesis) and their distribution:

References and publications: 

Struwe, L., J. W. Kadereit, J. Klackenberg, S. Nilsson, M. Thiv, K. B. von Hagen, & V. A. Albert. 2002. Systematics, character evolution, and biogeography of Gentianaceae, including a new tribal and subtribal classification. Pp. 21-309. In: L. Struwe & V. A. Albert (eds.), Gentianaceae: Systematics and Natural History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

© Lena Struwe, 2004