Shrubs, usually 0.5-1 m tall; branches slightly stout, with brown or grayish white bark and 2 longitudinal grooves, grooves pilose. Petiole 2-4 mm or slightly longer; leaf blade papery, black or dark gray adaxially when dry, light brown abaxially, ovate or ovate-elliptic, sometimes lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 1-3.5(-3.9) × 0.5-1.8(-2) cm, glabrous on both surfaces except midrib and margins pilose adaxially, slightly smooth, base broadly cuneate, apex acute or obtuse; lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs, inconspicuous adaxially, not or slightly prominent abaxially; stipules long triangular, ca. 2 mm, with stiff apiculus, margins usually glandular. Flowers subsessile, usually 3 flowers terminal on branches, occasionally axillary near tips of branches; bracteoles 2, subscarious, lanceolate or ovate-triangular, 2-2.5 mm, usually slightly shorter than sinus of calyx limb, glabrous or pilose, acuminate. Calyx black when dry; tube ca. 2.5 mm; lobes narrowly triangular, ca. 1.8 mm, shortly ciliate, acuminate, slightly spreading. Corolla white or pallid red, fragrant, funnelform, smooth outside, glabrous; tube 12-14 mm, villous inside; lobes spreading, suborbicular, 4-6 mm in diam., central portion relatively thick, margins broad and thin, erose, apex callose acute. Stamens 5, inserted in throat of corolla tube in short-styled flowers; filaments ca. 3 mm; anthers linear, ca. 4 mm, slightly exserted. Style dark brown or black when dry, linear, 7-8 mm, glabrous. Seed aril reticulate, adherent to testa. Fl. Jun, fr. Oct-Nov.
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