Shrubs or trees to 4.5 m tall, glabrous, the nodes well spaced. Leaves elliptic, oblong elliptic or ovate elliptic, 4-22 cm long, 1.5-11.0 cm wide, deltoid, acute or occasionally tapering somewhat obtusely at the apex, acuminate, the acumen to 3 cm long, acute, cuneate or obtuse at the base, the lateral veins 6-11, arcuate, the submarginal vein close to the margin, stiffly membranous to papyraceous, 4-22 cm long, 1.5-11.0 cm wide, concolorous, usually drying green, often lustrous above, glabrous above and usually so beneath; petioles 0.5-2.2 cm long, stiff, glabrous; stipules small, free, subrotund to cup shaped, 0.5-5.0 mm long, the 2 awns shorter than or to 4 times longer than the body, glabrate. Inflorescences terminal, occasionally in the uppermost axils, usually glabrous, usually purple, occasionally puberulent, often subrotund or oblong, paniculate, to 7.5 cm long, to 4.5 cm wide; peduncle 1.3-3.2(-5.0) cm long, the lowermost branches often 3-5, radiate and giving an umbellate appearance, the branches few, usually op-posite; bracts of the floral branchlets 1-3, usually blue or purple, the largest bract subulate, involute, 0.4-1.3 cm long, to 1 mm wide. Flowers sessile, soon going to fruit, the calyx and hypanthium 1.5 mm long, puberulent, the calycine cup short, with 5 ovate or subrotund lobes, 0.2-0.3 mm long, often wider than long, with a gland at each interdental position; corolla white, the tube and lobes 5 mm long, the tube ca. 1.0 mm long, partly glabrous and partly pilulose outside, hairy within, the lobes ovate, ca. 2 mm long, glabrous within except basally; stamens 5, the anthers 0.8-1.2 mm long, the filaments to 2.5 mm long; ovarian disc lobed, the style to 4 mm long. Fruits obovoid or subrotund, to 3.5 mm wide, glabrous or occasionally with a few hairs, costate.
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