Terrestrial or epiphytic shrubs, 0.5-1.5(-3) m tall, glabrous throughout when mature; stem base 1-2.5 cm in diameter; mature branches often arching, terete to bluntly angled, smooth or striate; bark often reddish above and brown to grayish brown beneath; immature branches and twigs of new growth terete or flattened, densely puberulent, glabrescent. Leaves ovate, obovate, elliptic or suborbicular, 4.5-10.5(-17) cm long, (2.5-)4-11 cm broad, basally cuneate, ob-tuse, rounded or subcordate and then often slightly amplexicaul, apically obtuse or rounded, grayish to brownish green above and tan to olive green beneath when dry, pinnately veined, the midrib elevated on both the surfaces, the proxi-mal 1/3 conspicuously thickened, 3-5 times thicker than the narrowed and im-pressed distal portion, the lateral nerves arcuate, anastomosing near the margin, impressed above, sometimes strongly so, raised and prominent beneath, the leaves hence frequently bullate, the veinlets impressed or slightly raised above, ele-vated beneath, newly unfolding leaves puberulent but later glabrate; petioles subterete, striate or rugose, 1.5-3(-5) mm long, 2.5-3.5(-4.5) mm in diameter, dark reddish brown. Inflorescences solitary racemes or rarely 2-5 per axil, tightly racemose, the floral internodes ca. 1 mm long, (5-)9-15(-47) flowered, capitate or cylindric at anthesis, encircled at the base by striate bracts, the rachis terete or bluntly angled, 1-2(-8) cm long, the floral nodes swollen; floral bracts smooth or muricate, striate when dry with conspicuously thickened, dichotomously branching veins, obovate to semiorbicular, basally truncate, apically rounded or acute, the apex usually splitting deeply, 7-10(13) mm long, (5.5-)8-11(-13) mm broad, marginally scarious and densely glandular fimbriate, concave, tightly appressed to and concealing the calyx and the lower portion of the corolla at anthesis, often persistent until after the berry has matured; pink to dark rose red; pedicels to 1 mm long, 1 mm in diameter, rarely with few cartilaginous teeth distally; bracteoles smooth or muricate but conspicuously striate when dry, elliptic oblong, basally truncate, apically rounded, (5-)7-9 mm long, (2-)4-6 mm wide, marginally scarious and densely glandular fimbriate, concave and strongly keeled, rarely flat, imbricate and completely enveloping the perianth in bud, tightly appressed to the calyx at anthesis, pink to dark rose red. Flowers with the calyx (4.5-)6-7.5 mm long, the tube cylindric, smooth to rugose, non-expanded basally (1.5-)2.5-3 mm long, 2.5 mm in diameter, pink to pale green, the limb spreading to campanulate, conspicuously striate within and without when dry, (2.5-)3.5-4(-5) mm long including the lobes, pale green, the lobes ovate to triangular, rarely oblong, acute, 1-2 mm long and 1.5-3 mm wide, erect after anthesis, the margins glandular fimbriate and occasionally slightly imbri-cate at the base, pale green and occasionally marginally pink, the sinuses acute or narrowly obtuse; corolla cylindric or slightly bottleshaped, narrowed at the throat, (6.5-)9-10 mm long, 3.5-4(-6) mm in diameter, often glandular fimbriate distally, white to pale green in the basal 1/3, green to yellowish green in median %, the limb and the lobes pale green, the lobes oblong to narrowly triangular, obtuse, 1-2 mm long; stamens 6-8.5 mm long, the filaments short puberulent distally, alternately 1.5-2.5 mm and 2.5-3.5 mm long, the anthers including tubules alternately 4-6 mm and 5-6.5 mm long, the thecae 1.5-2.5 mm long; style 8-9 mm long. Berry 9-10 mm in diameter.
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