Trees to 4 m tall, the ultimate branchlets becoming angular, smooth, glabrous, the nodes well spaced. Leaves oblong or oblanceolate, 5-16 cm long, 1.5-5.5 cm wide, rounded or obtuse at the apex, rarely cuneate, contracted into a slender acumen, the acumen to 1.3 cm long, ultimately obtuse, basally cuneate to obtuse, rarely truncate or auriculate, often inequilateral, the costa prominulous, the lat-eral veins ca. 13, at first nearly perpendicular, then widely arcuate, united to form a distinct undulate submarginal vein, to 0.3 cm from the margin with 1-2 smaller veins between 2 lateral veins, the intervenal areas spreading reticulate, charta-ceous to papyraceous, concolorous, glabrous, the margins delicately revolute; petioles slender to stout, to 0.5 cm long, glabrous; stipules connate, the 1 at the twig tip dome shaped, to 6 mm long, the awn shorter than the body, the inferior stipule~s more cylindrical, to 7 mm long, the sheath separating above into 2 tri-angular parts, each with an awn ca. 2 mm long, glabrous. Inflorescences terminal, solitary, oblong rotund to subcuneate, to 9 cm long, to 9 cm wide, paniculate, the peduncle 2-5 cm long, the lowermost branches opposite, to 3 cm long; the upper branches disposed as 2-3 pairs, usually opposite, the branchlets terminating in a fan of few-flowered cymules. Flowers with pedicels ca. 1 cm long, stiff; hypanthium ca. 0.75 mm long, glabrous, the calycine cup compressed cup shaped, shorter than the hypanthium, scarious and eglandular within, the teeth 4-5, ir-regular, unequal, triangular or subulate, to 0.8 mm long, acute; corolla purplish or white with a purplish apex, narrowly cylindrical, to 1 cm long, glabrous, car-nose; corolla lobes 4, ovate, to 3 mm long, occasionally slightly acuminate; sta-mens subsessile, the anthers 4, narrowly oblong, 3-4 mm long, minutely apicu-late, attached near the middle of the tube; style slender, ca. 8 mm long, the stigmas fingerlike, slightly unequal, to 1 mm long, scarcely wider than the style. Fruits drying black, bright blue, compressed rotund, wider than long, to 1.3 cm wide, smooth, glabrous, the calycine scar ringlike, scarcely elevated.
Home