Deciduous, dioecious, erect or scandent shrub to ± 4 m. tall; young branches 4-angled, with dense yellowish white velvety indumentum interspersed with scattered long hairs, becoming rounded, pale brown, glabrous and with scattered lenticels.. Leaf-blades broadly elliptic, obovate, round or transversely elliptic, 4.5–15.5 cm. long, 3.5–14 cm. wide, rounded to retuse at the apex but with a central broad short acumen, attenuate, truncate or subcordate at the base, the margin coarsely irregularly toothed but less so towards the base, densely velvety with similar indumentum to branches when young, becoming less hairy with age, sparsely pilose above but still ± velvety beneath; venation raised and reticulate beneath; petiole 0.8–10.5 cm. long.. Inflorescence a few-flowered (5–10 or up to 50 on sucker shoots) terminal panicle of indistinctly scorpioid cymes; peduncle 0.6–1.2 cm. long, elongating in fruit; cyme-branches similar; pedicels obsolete; all axes with indumentum similar to that of young branches.. Male flowers: calyx funnel-shaped, 4–8 mm. long with 3–4 triangular acute teeth 2–5 mm. long, longitudinally ribbed outside, densely whitish velvety outside, densely sericeous inside with glossy hairs; corolla yellowish white, tube funnel-shaped, longitudinally ribbed, particularly at base, 0.9–1.3 cm. long; lobes 5–6, triangular, 3–5 mm. long, 5 mm. wide; stamens 5–6; free part of filaments 5 mm. long, adnate part hairy; rudimentary ovary absent.. Female flowers: calyx urceolate, 1.2–2 cm. long, with 3–4 triangular acute 3–5 mm. long teeth, with similar indumentum to ♂ flowers; corolla same colour as ♂, funnel-shaped with inflated base, 1.2–1.6 cm. long, obscurely ribbed; lobes 5–7, triangular, 4–5 mm. long and wide; sterile stamens up to 7, with empty anthers, otherwise as in ♂; ovary ovoid, ± 1 cm. long including a ± 2 mm. long beak, silky, with 4 free styles or rarely fused in pairs for 1–2 mm, ± 1 cm. long including the 6 mm. long stigmas.. Fruit brown, ellipsoid, 2.5–3 cm. long, glabrous save for apical 5 mm. and the beak; cupuliform fruiting calyx 1.8–2.4 cm. long, distinctly reticulately nerved, ± velvety.. Fig. 1/5, p. 8.
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