Vines, to 7 m; stems densely tomentulose and/or hirtellous becoming glabrescent, drying brown. Leaves opposite; petiole 2-7.5 cm, densely tomentulose and/or pilosulous; blade drying submembranous to papery, ovate, lanceolate, or lanceolate-elliptic, 6-16 × 3-12 cm, adaxially densely strigillose, pilosulous, or scabrous, abaxially densely tomentose to hirtellous, base cordulate to deeply cordate or rarely obtuse, margins flat, apex acute or acuminate; secondary veins 6-8 pairs; stipules generally persistent, lanceolate-triangular to narrowly triangular, 4-15 mm, acute to acuminate or rarely bifid. Inflorescences axillary on main stems and/or terminal on lateral stems, paniculate, cylindrical to narrowly pyramidal, 6-25 cm, branched to 1-3 orders, densely tomentulose to hirtellous or pilosulous, pedunculate or sometimes apparently sessile with basal axes subtended by reduced leaves (or leaflike bracts); bracts linear to narrowly triangular or deeply bilobed, 1.5-6 mm. Flowers sessile and subsessile in congested to subcapitate cymules (sometimes appearing pedicellate when axes of cymes develop later). Calyx with hypanthium portion ellipsoid, 1-1.5 mm, glabrous to puberulent; limb lobed nearly to base; lobes oblong-lanceolate to narrowly triangular, 0.5-1.7 mm, sparsely to densely puberulent, strigillose, or hirtellous. Corolla pale green, pink, reddish purple, or dark purple, tubular-funnelform, outside densely mealy puberulent; tube 5-10.5 × 2.5-5 mm, without slits; lobes broadly triangular, 1-2.5 mm, obtuse to acute, margins crisped. Fruit ovoid, laterally compressed, 6-9 × 5-7 mm, glabrescent, drying brown; pyrenes ovate in outline, flattened, papillose-puberulent, marginal wing ca. 1 mm wide. Fl. Jun-Oct, fr. Jul-Dec.
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