Vines, twining, to 12 m; stems glabrous, drying dark red then grayish brown. Leaves opposite; petiole 1-4 cm, glabrous; blade drying leathery to papery, ovate-elliptic to elliptic, 6-12 × 3-6 cm, glabrous on both surfaces, base cuneate to obtuse, margins flat, apex acuminate with tip usually prolonged; secondary veins 6-10 pairs; stipules persistent or caducous, broadly triangular, 1-1.5 mm, obtuse to shortly acuminate. Inflorescences axillary and/or terminal, paniculate, pyramidal to cylindrical, 20-100 cm, branched to 6-10 orders, papillose, puberulent, or glabrescent, pedunculate; bracts triangular, 1-2 mm. Flowers sessile or subsessile. Calyx densely puberulent; hypanthium portion ellipsoid, 1-1.5 mm; limb 0.8-1 mm, lobed for ca. 1/2; lobes triangular, 0.3-0.6 mm. Corolla greenish to purplish white, funnelform, densely papillose-puberulent to scabrid-papillose outside; tube 5-8 × 2.6-3.7 mm, with slits at base; lobes triangular, 1.7-2.4 mm, acute, margins often crisped. Fruit orbicular, flattened laterally, 10-11 × 10-11 mm, puberulent, drying dark gray; pyrenes orbicular in outline, flattened, papery, marginal wing 4-4.5 mm wide. Fl. and fr. Jun-Oct.
Home