Erect, sparingly dichotomously branched shrub or small tree, 0.7-5 m high. Twigs terete, (sub)gla-brous, fleshy or not, at the nodes sometimes with small pseudostipules. Leaves elliptic to lanceolate, 7-33 by 4-13 cm, acuminate, base attenuate, thinly strigose to glabrous, glaucescent beneath, 0.5-3 cm petioled. Racemes extra-axillary, mostly reflexed from the base, including the peduncle 2-26(-50) cm long, lax to dense; rachis straight and thick or thin and flexuous. Bracts and bracteoles early caducous. Flowers 13-20 mm long, upper petals white or magenta and turning violet, crest yellow and turning dark violet to brownish, on 6-15(-20) mm long pedicels. Sepals white or yellowish, rounded, ciliate, alae obovate. Upper petals lanceolate; keel with 2 large massive, wrinkled appendages. Filaments free for about one third. Disk annular, sometimes abax-ially protruding. Ovary obreniform to orbicular; style straight in lower half, in upper half falcate, api-cally weakly 2-fid, at inner side with the stigmatic lobe. Capsule obreniform to didymous, 5-8 by 7.5-12 mm, winged or unwinged, with more or less protruding concentric ribs, coriaceous, greenish purple to deep purple, glabrous. Seeds elliptic, at micro-pylar side with a small appendage, purplish black, glabrous, to halfway or nearly completely covered by the smooth, orange to scarlet aril, the slightly protruding chalaza and the raphe distinctly visible.
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