Shrubs or small trees, 1-5 m tall. Branchlets sometimes weakly ridged, densely pubescent; terminal buds densely yellow-brown felted-hairy. Petiole ca. 1 cm, pubescent; leaf blade green, elliptic or oblong-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, 6.5-14 × 2-2.5 cm, papery, both surfaces sparsely pubescent especially on veins, glabrescent, midvein raised abaxially, depressed adaxially, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs, anastomosing near margin, veinlets reticulate, evident, base cuneate or obtuse, margin entire, ciliate, apex acuminate. Racemes opposite to leaves, drooping, densely pubescent, 7-10 cm, to 25(-30) cm at fruiting. Pedicel ca. 3 mm, pubescent; bract 1, basal, triangular-acuminate. Flowers 1.3-2 cm. Sepals 5, unequal, ciliate, caducous after anthesis; outer sepals 3, small, upper one deeply cucullate, 8-9 mm, lateral sepals ovate, ca. 5 × 3 mm, apex rounded; inner sepals 2, red-purple, petaloid, oblong-obovate, 1.5-1.8 cm, nearly at right angle between them and petals. Petals 3, connate in lower 2/3, yellow, slightly fleshy; keel longer than lateral petals, apex with multifid appendages. Stamens 8; filaments ca. 1.4 cm, lower 2/3 united, forming an open staminal sheath, adnate with petals; anthers ovoid. Disk fleshy. Ovary compressed globose, ca. 3 mm in diam., narrowly winged, ciliate; style 8-12 mm, curved toward apex, apex 2-lobed; stigma on lower lobes. Capsule purple-red at maturity, baccate, broadly reniform or slightly cordate, ca. 1 cm, ca. 1.3 cm in diam., margin winged, ciliate, apex emarginate, mucronate; carpels with concentric circles costate. Seeds brown-red to black, globose, ca. 4 mm in diam., very sparsely pubescent, truncate at hiliferous end, shiny, with large helmet-shaped, somewhat irregular, projecting strophiole. Fl. May-Oct, fr. Jun-Nov.
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Erect, dichotomously branched shrub or small tree, 1.5-6 m high. Twigs terete, glabrescent. Leaves oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 5-20 by 1.5-8 cm, cuspidate, base attenuate to obtuse, thinly hairy to glabrous, beneath somewhat glaucescent, up to 1.5 cm petioled. Racemes terminal, axillary or extra-axillary, erect or rarely pendulous at apex, including the 6-12.5 cm long peduncle, dense. Bracts and bracteoles early caducous. Flowers 11-20 mm long, yellow, turning orange and red, on 2-7(-9) mm long pedicels. Sepals rounded, ciliate, alae obovate. Upper petals lanceolate, keel with 2 much-incised appendages. Filaments free for one third. Disk annular. Ovary orbicular, sometimes ciliate; style straight in lower half, curved in upper half, apically weakly 2-fid, at inner side with the stigmatic lobe. Capsule ± orbicular or somewhat asymmetric, 8-10 by 12-15 mm winged, with prominent concentric ribs, coriaceous, glabrous. Seeds globular, at micro-pylar side with a distinct appendage, black, glabrous or sparsely hairy up to halfway covered by an irregularly lobed and apically rather strongly projecting aril, the little protruding chalaza and the raphe distinctly visible.
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