Shrubs or trees to 5 m tall, the branchlets terete, smooth, densely pilose, the nodes well spaced. Leaves arising as juveniles from a cylindrical bract or pair of bracts, to 2 cm long, the bract drying brown, puberulent; leaf blades ovate oblong, 9-17 cm long, 2.7-7.5 cm wide, acute toward the apex, acuminate, the acumen often inconspicuous, obtuse or rounded at the base, the costa prominulous, the lateral veins 8-9, strongly ascending, sometimes immersed above, papery when dry, rubescent above, glabrous except for the costa, glabrous beneath except for the costa and veins, the hairs appressed, elongate; petioles to 0.5 cm long, pu-bescent; stipules triangular subulate, to 1.5(-2.0) cm long, ca. 0.5 cm wide at the base, ultimately appressed to the stem. Inflorescences terminal, solitary, panic-ulate, puberulent, to 17 cm long, to 7(-10) cm wide; peduncle slender, 3.5-7.0 cm long, to 0.18 cm wide, the rachis somewhat flexuous, the branches alternate or opposite, rarely 4-verticillate; bracts and bracteoles linear subulate, equal to the nonfloriferous parts of the branchlets. Flowers small (in bud); hypanthium oblong, to 1.5 mm long, pubescent, the calycine cup small, the teeth 5, small, triangular; corolla tube 1.5-2.0 mm long, carnose, glabrous or sparsely puberulent outside, densely villose inside, the lobes deltoid, to 1.3 mm long, acute; stamens 5, the anthers oblong, to 1.5 mm long, short acuminate at the apex, the acumen ca. 0.3 mm long. Fruits sessile, rotund, 3 mm in diam., drying black, glabrate to sparsely pubescent, the hairs short, strigose, the ribs obvious, obtusely margin-ate, the calycine cup vestigial.
Home