Glabrous except for the inflorescence and flowers sparsely tomentose when young and soon glabrescent. Leaves opposite, usually displaced and often sub verticillate; lamina lanceolate to ovate, (7-)10-25(-30) by (2.5-)4-9(-l 1) cm, cuneate to truncate at the base to a distinct petiole (8-) 12-35 mm long, usually attenuate or shortly acuminate and acute at the apex, slightly lustrous olive green above, dull light brown below; venation pinnate with the midrib and the main laterals faintly to clearly visible on both sides. Inflorescences at the nodes, a many-flowered raceme or spike subtended by an involucre of numerous linear bracts up to 15 mm long; axis (150-)200-500(-850) mm long, 3-5 mm thick in the lower part and attenuate towards the tip; pedicels 0.25-2(-4) mm long, often verticillately clustered; bracts deltoid, very concave, often with a sac-like dorsal protuberance, finely acute, 1.5-3 mm long. Ovary cylindric, 3-5 mm long; calyx limb erect, entire, 1-1.5 mm long. Corolla in mature bud 5-to7-merous, (7-)8-12 mm long, not inflated at the base, clavate and rounded at the apex, yellow, orange or red. Anther 2-2.5 mm long, obtuse, about equal to the free part of the filament. Style (3-)5-8 mm long, reaching to the base of the anthers or lower, gradually widened upwards, lacking a constriction; stigma flat, as wide as the style. Fig. 26f, g.
Home