Evergreen shrub up to 7.6 m. high; branches round in cross-section, covered with dense pale to golden-brown adpressed hairs.. Leaf-blades discolorous elliptic, (6–)13.5–18.5 cm. long and (2–)4–6 cm. wide, acuminate at apex, cuneate or attenuate at base, with 7–11 pairs of lateral nerves, glabrous above and with sparse adpressed hairs and dense adpressed hairs on nerves beneath; petiole (1.5–)3–5(–7) mm. long, with adpressed hairs beneath; stipules ovate, 1.1–3.6 cm. long and 0.5–0.6 cm. wide (the Uganda material being the longest), apex usually long-caudate or sometimes obtuse, connate for up to 6 mm. above the node, adpressed hairs on midvein and near base outside.. Flowers sessile in closely packed globose or slightly elongated sessile heads, 1–2 cm. long and 1.2–1.7 cm. wide (excluding the corolla length); bracteoles triangular, up to 8 mm. long and 3.5 mm. wide, with adpressed hairs outside.. Calyx densely adpressed hirsute; tube suborbicular to cylindrical, 1.1 mm. long and 1.8 mm. wide; limb 2–3.5 mm. long (including lobes), slightly wider than the tube; lobes 0.8–1.4 mm. long and wide, obtuse or narrowly triangular, sparsely covered with adpressed hairs within.. Corolla densely adpressed hirsute on the outside with the exception of the base of the tube; tube 1 cm. long, widening 6.5 mm. above the base, 1.5–2.5 mm. wide at the base and 2.8–4 mm. wide at the top, with a few hairs at throat and between the anthers; lobes ovate, 3.5 mm. long and 2 mm. wide, apex acute, glabrous within.. Anthers 2.5–2.8 mm. long, with acuminate apex, 0.5 mm. long.. Disc annular, 1 mm. diameter and 0.3 mm. deep.. Style 5.8 mm. long; stigma up to 4.2 mm. long.. Infructescences ± globose, 2.8 cm. long and 2.3 cm. wide, sessile or with a peduncle up to 2.8 cm. long.. Fruit ± globose, 0.7–1 cm. diameter, indistinctly rugose and covered with sparse adpressed hairs.. Seeds ±1.5 mm. long.
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