Shrub up to c. 3½ m. Branchlets 4-angular or subterete. Leaves membranous, sometimes chartaceous (especially at high altitude), ovate-oblong to lanceolate, or elliptic to elliptic-oblong, 7.5-10.5 by 2-4 cm; base cuneate sometimes obtuse; apex usually long-acuminate (acumen up to 2 cm); margin crenate-serrulate or serrulate; nerves 4-6 pairs, spreading towards 3-5 mm from the edge and then arching; petiole 2-6 mm. Cymes 1-3 times branched, axillary or extra-axillary, or crowded on axillary brachyblasts, very short to sometimes up to 8 cm long, few-flowered. Peduncle short, sometimes up to 4 cm. Bracts triangular, 1-2 mm long, entire or sometimes short-ciliate. Flowers purplish-red, 5-merous. Calyx lobes semi-orbicular or subreniform, 0.5-1.5 mm long, the inner two usually larger, irregularly minute-denticulate. Petals suborbicular, 2.5-3 by 2.5 mm, minute-denticulate,slightly contracted at the base. Disk obscurely 5-angular, c. 2 mm ø. Stamens small; filaments very short; anthers c. 0.5 mm long. Pistil short, emerging c. 3 mm from the disk, slightly 5-angular; stigma discoid, obscurely 5-angular. Fruits obcordate, distinctly 5-lobed, 1.5-2 by 1.25-1.75 cm. Seeds (very young) with aril at the base.
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