Shrubs to 21/2 m tall, the stem unbranched, smooth. Leaves sessile, entire, oblong obovate, to 1 m long, to 50 cm wide, rounded or widely deltoid at the apex, tapering gradually to base, ultimately auriculate, each auricle ca. 2.5 cm wide, the costa prominulous above, prominulous to prominent beneath, the lateral veins ca. 18, prominulous above and beneath, coriaceous, glabrous to puberulent beneath, purple beneath; stipules ovate oblong or triangular, 5.0-6.5 cm long, puberulent outside. Inflorescences axillary, few flowered; bracts ovate lanceo-late, to 1.2 cm long, obtuse, pubescent. Flowers sessile or subsessile, the pedicels to 1 cm long; hypanthium short, the calycine cup campanulate, ca. 1 cm long, purplish red, stiffly petaloid, pubescent outside, rugulose within, usually with numerous oblong glands within the cup near the sinuses, occasionally with an additional gland at the sinus, the calycine lobes 5, erect, somewhat unequal, most about 1/2 the length of the cup, the longest almost as long as the cup, often 1 lobe conspicuously short and acute; corolla yellow, the tube narrowly cylindrical, to 2.5 cm long, thickly carnose, glabrous to puberulent outside toward the apex, villose within only near point of filament attachment, the lobes triangular to ob-long, 4-7 mm long, 2.2-2.6 mm wide; stamens 5, the anthers oblong, 4 mm long, obtuse, the filaments unequal, to 16 mm long, to 0.8 mm wide, densely villose at the base; style ca. 18 mm long, glabrous, the stigmas oblong, 3.5 mm long, obtuse, plane, the ovarian disc compressed cylindrical, ca. 2 mm long, thin walled, trun-cate, marginally undulate. Fruits oblong rotund, to 4.5 cm long, drying black, puberulent, the persistent calyx to 1.5 cm long.
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