Shrubs or trees to 4 m tall, the branches lignose, puberulent, the leaves crowd-ed at the tips. Leaves in bud bursting out of the terminal stipules, oblong, to 1 m long or longer, to 70 cm wide or wider, deeply pinnatifid lobed, the lobes 6-13, the terminal portion 3-lobed, the median lobe either ovate oblong or obovate oblong, as long as the 2 lateral lobes, the latter oblong, usually narrowly so, 5-25(-35) cm long, 2-8(-9) cm wide, cuneate at the apex, 2-8 cm apart, the sinuses subacute or rounded, extending almost to the rachis, the rachis and the winglike portion of the blade 0.5-3.0 cm wide, the costa prominulous above, prominent beneath, to 0.25 mm wide, minutely pubescent, the secondary veins 6-9, usually one for each lobe, the branches of the secondary veins ca. 6 per lobe, thickly herbaceous to stiffly chartaceous; petioles (3.0-)5.0-8.5 cm long, subterete, lack-ing auricles, dilated proximally; stipules ovate lanceolate, to 6.5 cm long, to 2.5 cm wide, acute, coriaceous, strigillose or glabrate outside. Inflorescences densely flowered, the peduncle to 1 cm long; bracts oblong, to 3 cm long, strigillose and ciliate. Flowers sessile; hypanthium ca. 1 cm long, the hairs appressed, dense, the calycine cup somewhat expanded, 0.5-0.7 cm long, coriaceous, tuberculate outside, minutely puberulent outside, glabrous within, with a few oblong glands at the base, the lobes 5, oblong rotund, somewhat unequal, 8-10 mm long, to 10 mm wide, glabrous within, scarious margined, ciliolate; corolla white, yellow or pale green, the tube narrowly cylindrical, ca. 20 mm long, coriaceous, puberulent outside, densely bearded within at the point of filament attachment, the lobes 5, oblong, ca. 10 mm long, glabrous within; stamens 5, the anthers oblong, ca. 3 mm long, the filaments unequal, 8-10 mm long, 2 short, 1 intermediate, and 2 long, bearded basally, attached ca. 8 mm from the base of the tube; style 9 mm long, the stigmatic area ca. 4 mm long, the stigmatic lobes unequal, concave, 1 narrow, ca. 0.8 mm wide, the other ca. 1.5 mm wide, both pubescent adaxially. Fruits sessile, ovate, pear shaped or subrotund, to 2 cm long, usually truncate at the apex, densely lenticellate, the persistent calyx to 2 cm long, the base of the calycine tube set within a delicate ringlike scar.
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