Herbaceous. Rhizome repent, short, internodes very short. Leaves transverse, elliptic or ovate, abruptly acuminate, cordate at base, 7-18 cm. long, palminerved, entire, glabrous above, brown-pilose beneath especially on the nerves, petioles 15-25 cm. long, subdensely pilose with fimbriate scarious scales, stipules deciduous, ovate, membranaceous, 10-15 mm. long. Peduncle not much exceeding the leaves until in fruit, to 35 cm. long, bearing scales like those of the petioles. Cymes bi-sexual, few-flowered, subumbellate with the ultimate branches greatly reduced. Bracts deciduous. Pedicels 5-15 mm. long. Flowers white or pink, sometimes red-punctate. Staminate tepals 2, suborbicular, 5-7 mm. long, rather fleshy, sparsely pilose. Stamens free, few, anthers oblong, longer than the filaments. Pistillate bracteoles lacking. Pistillate tepals 2, like the staminate. Ovary 3-celled, placentae bilamellate, ovuliferous throughout, styles connate at base, bifid, stig-matic tissue spiral. Capsule sharply deflexed, ellipsoid, 10-12 mm. long, pilose, wings very unequal, the largest subreflexed, broadly ovate, obtuse, to 10 mm. wide, the others narrowly lunate or marginiform.
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