Well-branched shrub to 1–2 m.; twigs soon terete, rusty tomentose with short coarse dendritic hairs.. Leaves opposite to subopposite; petiole 1–5 mm. long; lamina coriaceous, lanceolate to elliptic or slightly oblanceolate, 2.5–5.5 cm. long, 1–3.2 cm. wide, bluntly pointed to rounded, basally cuneate to shortly cordate, tomentose beneath with pale sessile stellate hairs and conspicuous rusty dendritic hairs, glabrescent above; lateral nerves 5–7 pairs, spreading, sometimes obscured.. Racemes axillary, 2–5 cm. long, 16–14-flowered; pedicel 0.5–1(–2 in fruit) mm. long; bract boat-shaped, 2–3 mm. long.. Receptacle 2 mm. long, densely hairy.. Calyx 0.5 mm. long.. Corolla orange-yellow, sometimes redder at extremities, 2.5–3 cm. long, rusty tomentose with short dendritic hairs; tube 8–10 mm. long; basal swelling ovoid, 2.5–3 mm. long; lobes linear-lanceolate over the anthers in bud, linear below, irregularly erect to spreading and reflexed from point of filament-insertion, sometimes coherent to one side.. Stamen-filaments slender, inserted 7–8 mm. above the base of the lobes, the upper half slightly thickened, loosely coiling, collapsing and mostly breaking off after anthesis; anthers 2.5–3 mm. long; connective-appendage small, blunt.. Berry bluish green, bottle-shaped, 7 mm. long, 4.5 mm. in diameter, hairy, but ultimately glabrescent; seed bright orange.. Fig. 15/12–19 (p. 88).
Home