Shrub, sometimes arborescent, 2-10 m high; monoecious; twigs and foliage with indumentum of stellate and dendritic hairs. Leaves membranous or chartace-ous; petioles densely stellate-tomentose, ca 1-3.5 cm long; glands at apex of petiole 2-6, patelliform, stalked, ca 0.5-0.8 mm diam (ca as broad as length of stalk); stipules elliptic or obovate, tomentose, the margins laciniate-toothed, ca 4-9 mm long; blades ovate to elliptic, ca 8-20 cm long, 4-12 cm broad, softly stellate or stel-late-hispidulous (1 of the ascending radii often larger than the others) above, paler and more densely stellate (the ca 6-10-radiate hairs mostly 0.5-0.8 mm across) and minutely glandular-punctate beneath, mostly 5-(7-) nerved at base, with ca 5-8 additional veins on either side, the base obtuse or rounded to subcordate, the margins subentire or distinctly crenulate-denticulate, the apex rather abruptly short-acuminate. Inflorescences terminal (sometimes with additional axes in distalmost axils), bisexual or staminate, racemiform (or paniculate by aggrega-tion), becoming ca 10-20 cm long; cymules unisexual, 9 flowers 1-5 at proxi-mal nodes; bracts elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, more or less laciniate-toothed, ca 2-4 mm long, subtending solitary flowers (or c flowers sometimes several per bract). Staminate flowers with stellate-tomentose pedicels ca 6-9 mm long; calyx whitish stellate-tomentose, 4-5 mm long, divided ca 1/2way or more into; 5 tri-angular lobes; receptacle densely villose; petals obovate, ca 4.5-5 mm long, minutely glandular-punctate, densely whitish-ciliate along the margins and vil-lose on the back; stamens 15 or 16, the filaments glandular-pustulate, glabrous, 3-3.7 mm long, the anthers elliptic-oblong, 1.2-1.3 mm long, glandular-pustulate on the connective. Pistillate flowers with stout tomentose pedicels 2-3 mm long; calyx-segments 5, whitish stellate-tomentose, broadly ovate, reduplicate-valvate, entire, ca 5-5.5 mm long and 4-4.5 mm broad (increasing to 7-8 mm long and broad in fruit); disc ca 2.5 mm across, cut into 5 reniform thickish segments; petals absent, replaced by tufts of stiff hairs; ovary minutely and closely pulverulent-scurfy (the trichomes ca 0.05 mm wide) and glandular-pustulate, the styles free, ca 4-5 mm long, basally thickened, distally 2-4 times bifid into slender tips. Capsules subglobose, closely glandular-scurfy, ca 7.5-8 mm across, the columella slender, ca 4.5 mm long; seeds plump, brownish, minutely beaked, obliquely costate on both faces, 4.3-4.5 mm long, 3.3-3.4 mm wide, the caruncle triangular, ca 1.2-1.5 mm broad.
Home