A New Species of Besleria (Gesneriaceae) from Cundinamarca, in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes

A new species of the genus Besleria Plum. ex L. (Gesneriaceae), endemic to the Andean forests of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca, is described and illustrated. Besle­ria atopa Solano-C., D. Ruiz-Mol. & Zapata-Corr. is readily distinguished by a combination of characters including decumbent stems, solitary axillary flowers, and laterally compressed yellow corollas. The new spe­cies is morphologically similar to B. immitis C. V. Mor­ton, which occurs in the Amazon basin of Colombia, and to B. barbensis Hanst., found in Costa Rica and Panama.