Shrubs, 0.6-2(-3) m tall; branchlets slender, terete, with 2 bands of hairs decurrent from base of stipules. Petiole 0.2-0.8 cm, pilose adaxially; leaf blade membranous-papery or submembranous, turning black or iron-gray when dry, ovate to ovate-oblong or broadly lanceolate, usually 1-5 × 0.5-1.5(-2) cm, subglabrous to puberulent on both surfaces, base attenuate or slightly decurrent, margins ciliate, apex acute or acuminate; lateral veins slender, (3 or)4 or 5 pairs, inconspicuous adaxially, slightly prominent abaxially; stipules subtriangular or long triangular, 1.5-2(-4) mm, glandular-denticulate or laciniate, sparsely pubescent at base, cuspidate. Inflorescences terminating short new growths, small, with uppermost pair of nodes approximate, few cymules and 3-5(-12) flowers; bract pairs leaflike and petiolate, rarely ligulate on subsidiary 1-flowered cymules; stipules as those of vegetative growth or reduced, hyaline, and laciniate. Flowers sessile; bracteole pairs ca. 1.5 mm, ca. 1/3 connate at base, lobes triangular, obtuse or subacute, glabrous, usually ciliate, mucronulate, central pairs in a cymule often more elongate and cuspidate. Calyx glabrous; hypanthium ca. 3.4 mm; tube black when dry, obovate or tubular, 1.1-1.4 mm above ovary; lobes 5, triangular, rarely orbicular, 0.7-0.8 mm, hairy or papillate in bud or around margins, rarely 6 lobes or 2 deeper clefts in tube. Corolla white, light pink, or purple, sometimes bicolored, black when dry, broadly funnelform, with white stiff hairs at apex in bud, exterior finely mammillate, more prominently so toward apex, very rarely with few short hairs decurrent from sinuses of lobes; tube 10-11.5 mm, with long fine hairs within; lobes 5, broadly ovate-triangular, 2-4 mm, margins thin, inflexed, ca. 1 mm wide, central portion ca. 2 mm wide, apex inflexed in a beak, with few short stout smooth hairs on inner surface. Stamens 5. Long-styled flowers: filaments ca. 0.3 mm, anthers 1.7-2 mm, attached near base or rarely inserted in middle of corolla tube, included; stigmas completely exserted. Short-styled flowers: filaments 1-1.7 mm, anthers 1.9-2.7 mm, inserted below middle of corolla tube, partly exserted; stigmas immediately below anthers. Stigmas 2-4-lobed, lobes linear, 2-2.5 mm, with hairs sometimes extending onto upper style. Capsule narrow, oblong, ca. 7 mm; seeds oblong; aril reticulate, adherent to testa. Fl. Jun-Sep.
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