Coarse suffrutescent herbs or weak shrubs growing in clumps; stems succu-lent, erect or decumbent, 4 cm to 2 m tall, unbranched, the internodes elongate, green or more commonly reddish to maroon with green lines, pilose to hirsute, trichomes with reddish articulations, the bracts of rhizome pink. Leaves op-posite, ovate to oblong, often falcate, 4.0-22.8 cm long, 1.5-12.2 cm wide, the apex acute to acuminate, the base cordate, rounded to acute, sometimes oblique, the margin crenate serrate, occasionally reddish, above dark green, pilose with appressed hairs, becoming scabrous, below light green in shade plants to dark red or purple in exposed plants, some plants green, others red in the same population, villous especially along the prominent veins, petioles sulcate, slender, 1.3-7.5 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, usually green on the upper side and reddish on the lower side, densely villous. Inforescences of 1-10 flowers per fascicle in the axils of the upper leaves, erect; peduncles lacking; pedicels surrounded by a few leaflike bracts at the base, nearly equalling the petioles in length, green to brownish, villous with patent hairs. Flowers brightly colored; floral tube globose or turbinate, ca. 4 mm in diam., accrescent in fruit, green, villous; calyx lobes erect, membranous, the tube short, ca. 1 mm long, lobes 5, equal, tri-angular to lanceolate, acute, all green or maroon tipped, villous; corolla bright red, orange, salmon red, or yellow orange, toward the apex becoming greenish or red outside, the inside light yellow, the tube 2.1-3.0 cm long, nearly straight from a rounded base, 3-4 mm in diam., ampliating to 6-9 mm near the middle, narrowing to 3-6 mm at the mouth, villous with reddish hairs outside, inside glandular, the lobes of the limb erect, rounded, 1-2 mm long, green or yellow with purple spots to reddish; stamens adnate to the base of the corolla tube, to 2.5 cm long, yellow, sparsely glandular, the anthers oblong, ca. 2 mm long and wide; glands 5, distinct; ovary apex conic, pilose, the style nearly straight, ca. 2 cm long, pilose, the stigma bilobed to clavate, glandular papillate. Fruit a green, yellow, or brown capsule, ovoid, globose or turbinate, to 1 cm long, the apex conic, opening by 2 valves; seeds tawny to reddish brown, fusiform, ca. 0.5 mm long. Chromosomes n = 13 (Davidse, 1970, based on material from Costa Rica).
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