Shrubs or small trees, 2-6.5 m high; trunk to 7.5 cm d.b.h.; stems obtusely tetragonal to subterete or terete, glabrous; branches and branchlets obtusely tetragonal to terete, more or less densely appressed-pubescent or pilose, much less so in age. Leaves decussate-opposite, petiolate, the leaf-blades thick-textured, oblong-elliptic or elliptic to lance-oblong or lanceolate-elliptic, mostly 1.5-5 cm long and 1-2 cm wide during anthesis, later to 12 cm long and 4 cm wide, mostly acute apically, sometimes somewhat acuminate, acuminate or long-acuminate to cuneate basally and prolonged into the petiole, regularly serrulate or closely crenate from the apex to the base with small rounded teeth, decidedly bullate and rugose above, densely short-pilose and scabrous or asperulous above with many bulbous-based whitish trichomes, densely and softly white-pilose or-tomentose beneath, secondaries and veinlet reticulation prominent; the petioles stout, 5-10 mm long, densely subappressed-pubescent with cinereous trichomes. Inflores-cences shorter than, equaling, or somewhat surpassing the subtending leaves during anthesis, much shorter than the leaves in fruit, the heads hemispheric, 1.6-2 cm long and wide during anthesis, hop-like, oblong and to 4 cm long and 3.5 cm wide in fruit; peduncles slender, 1-3 cm long, densely appressed-pubescent, spreading or somewhat recurved; bracts large, ovate or broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, papyraceous, reddish, 1-1.8 cm long and 5-8 mm wide during anthesis, later enlarged and to 2 cm long and wide, acute, short-pubescent or puberulent on the lamina, ciliate-margined, the outers long-acuminate. Flowers with the corolla hypocrateriform, white or greenish-white to yellow.
Home