Woody climber, ascending to top of tallest trees (ex BTH.), glabrous or on young vegetative parts clothed with brown, ± crisped hairs. Leaves oblong or lanceolate from a cuneate or contracted base, obtuse or rather acute, firmly herbaceous, 5-20 by 1½-10 cm; petiole 1½-3½ cm. Flowers (♂)(♀) (male ones pseudo-hermaphrodite), panicled; single panicles 4-15 cm long, axillary and terminal; highest often collected in a terminal, rather large panicle; branches of single panicles widely patent, spiciform, dense or rather lax, 1-3 cm long. Flowers sessile or subsessile, glabrous; bracts and bracteoles thinly membranous, nerveless. ♂: Bracts ovate-orbicular, rounded, +-1 mm long; bracteoles slightly smaller than the bract, much shorter than the perianth, ± ¾ mm diam; perianth white. Tepals oblong or oblong-obovate, rounded at apex, very convex, nerveless, 1½- long. Adult stamens slightly exceeding the perianth; filaments thin, finally much longer than the short staminal cup; anthers oblong, yellow. Ovary shortly stalked, conical, glabrous, empty; style very short; stigmas 3, linear-clavate, short, thick, recurved. ♀: Bracts and bracteoles much shorter than perianth, ± 1 mm long; bracts ovate-triangular, bracteoles oval. Perianth greenish, 1.25-1.5 mm long, at last appressed against ripe fruit. Staminodes 5, varying from slightly shorter to slightly longer than perianth; filaments at base connate in a comparatively large and wide cup; their free parts slightly longer than cup; their anthers deformed, small, empty. Ovary subglobose, 6-15-ovuled; style short; stigmas 3, recurved, shortly linear, thick. Berry globose, red, with the top exserted from the perianth, 3-4 mm diam. Seeds 1-2, reniform, black, densely verruculose, ± 1 mm diam.
More
Shrub, slender, scrambling, or semi-climber or vine, to 4(–10) m high. Leaves: petiole 10–35 mm long; lamina ovate to elliptic or narrower, (14–)22–130(–160) mm long, (6–)10–65(–85) mm wide, acute to acuminate, rarely subacute, with base cuneate, hairier on lower surface than above. Inflorescence a panicle, terminal and axillary, (18–)40–130(–170) mm long; peduncle (5) 10–40 mm long; bract ovate or broader, 0.6–1.1 mm long, subacute to obtuse, glabrous; bracteoles broadly ovate, 0.6–1(–1.3) mm long, subacute to obtuse, glabrous, rarely with hairy base. Flowers functionally unisexual, single to three (4) together; pedicel 0–0.5 (–1) mm long. Tepals broadly oblong to ovate, 1.0–2.0 mm long, obtuse. Style 0–0.5 mm long; stigma (2-or) 3-fid. Fruit 2–3 mm across, pink to scarlet. Seeds 1 or 2, reniform, 0.8–1(–1.25) mm long, papillate.
Home
