Shrubs 1.5-3.5 m tall, the twigs smooth, glabrous, usually drying purple black, ultimately slender, the nodes well spaced. Leaves lanceolate or occasionally ovate lanceolate, 6.0-13.5 cm long, 3-7 cm wide, acute or acuminate at the apex, the acumen short or to 1.2 cm long, the base acute or attenuate acute, the costa slender, prominulous or plane above, scarcely prominent beneath, the lat-eral veins 12(-14), arcuate, prominulous above and beneath, not forming a distinct submarginal vein, evanescent at margin, membranous to chartaceous, glabrous or minutely puberulent; petioles 0.5-1.5 cm long, slender, 1.0-1.5 mm wide; stipules connate, the sheath short, 1-2 mm long, slightly swollen, truncate, each part with 2 subulate, well-spaced awns, as long as or 2-3 times longer than the sheath. Inflorescences terminal, reddish, contracted paniculate, 7-8(-12) cm long, 2-4(-5) cm wide, glabrous to minutely puberulent, the peduncle 2.5-3.5(-7.0) cm long, slender, 0.1 cm wide, the branches few, to 4 cm long, strongly ascending at anthesis, the lowermost 2 opposite, the upper opposite or alternate; bracts and bracteoles often persistent in fruit, subulate, to 3 mm long, spreading, the cymes few flowered. Flowers with pedicels capillaceous, to 1 cm long, con-spicuously expanded just below the hypanthium; hypanthium oblong, ca. 1 mm long, glabrous, the calycine cup scarcely measurable, the lobes 5, ovate trian-gular, 0.3 mm long; corolla red, the tube (in bud) to 4.5 mm long; anthers 2.5-4.0 mm long (Steyermark), glabrous. Fruits rotund, oblong rotund or ovate rotund, to 3.5 mm long, glabrous, the ribs obtuse.
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