Terrestrial or epiphytic, suffrutescent herbs; stems usually (0.3-) 1.0-1.5 m high, glabrous throughout or minutely pubescent above. Principal leaves with blades elliptic, ovate or broadly lanceolate, (2-)7-12(-18) cm long, (1.2-) 3.5(-8) cm wide, usually 2-3 times as long as wide, apically abruptly narrowed to an acuminate tip, basally cuneate to rounded, marginally entire except for minute callosities or repand-dentate with conspicuous callose-tipped teeth, gla-brous on both surfaces, the veins minutely scaberulous beneath, rarely puberulous to short-pubescent beneath; petioles glabrous, rarely puberulous, (1-)1.5-3 cm long. Flowers (3-)4-5 cm long; pedicels solitary in the upper leaf axils, ascend-ing, glabrous, ebracteolate (1.5-)4.5-10(-12) cm long; hypanthium glabrous, rarely appressed puberulous or spiculate, in anthesis cylindric to campanulate, basally rounded, flaring apically, usually as broad as long, 5-12 mm long, 4-8 mm in diameter; calyx lobes oblong, linear or rarely triangular-deltoid, apically rounded, rarely acute, entire or minutely dentate, 2-12(-22) mm long; corolla glabrous, rarely puberulous or spiculate, variable in color but basically green with suffusion of red or dark purple, appearing deep maroon or dark purple, the tube 11-16 mm long, flaring greatly in the upper third, the lobes linear and falcate, the 2 upper lobes 12-22 mm long, the 2 lateral lobes 8-12 mm long, the lowest lobe 6-9 mm long; filament tube (25-)30-36 mm long, glabrous or distally in-conspicuously puberulous, basally distinct and free from the corolla tube, the anthers usually glabrous externally, rarely copiously appressed-pubescent, the 3 longer anthers 5-8 mm long, the 2 shorter anthers about half as long and either glabrous or sparsely pilose apically. Berries fleshy or watery, white and often tinged with purple or blue, ovoid with truncate ends to broadly ellipsoid, 10-15 (-30) mm long, 6-20(-25) mm in diameter; seeds ellipsoid-oblong with rounded ends, 0.6-1.0 mm long, light brown.
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