Unbranched shrub 1-4 m tall; leafy portion of twigs 5-20 mm thick. Leaves large, 30-50 cm long, obovate, apically acute, basally cuneately attenuate into the petiole, entire or with shallow teeth, the lateral veins prominent, elevated beneath, nearly straight, evanescent towards the margin, branching to form an inconspicous and somewhat irregular marginal vein, the minor venation indistinct beneath, sometimes appearing somewhat reticulate above, coriaceous, mostly drying light green; petioles stout, especially at the darkened base, narrowly winged to 2-3 cm from the base, or conspicuously narrow winged to within 10 mm of the base. Inflorescences cauliflorous racemes clustered amongst the leaves, the peduncles slender, minutely puberulent, drying orange-yellow, to 15 cm long, the flowers evenly spaced; pedicels ca. 1.5 mm long, subtended by a single, cucullate, ciliolate bract 0.5-1 mm long; staminate flowers ca. 5 mm across, rotate, the sepals 4, rotate, 1-1.5 mm long, cucullate, the margins hyaline; petals forming a tube ca. 1 mm long, shorter than the sepals, the petals rotund, fleshy, orange, staminodes reduced to small flaps at the corolla mouth; filaments united into a narrow spike in the floral center, the 4 anthers connivent into a peltate disc, lobed and dehiscing on the underside where impressed by the stami-nodial flaps; pistillate inflorescences apparently much more contracted than the staminate, pistillate flowers not seen. Fruits globose, to 4 cm across, sometimes minutely apiculate, yellowish, the pericarp becoming hard, brittle, minutely muri-cate; seeds numerous, drying dark reddish brown.
Home