Psychotria spithamea S.Moore

Subshrub with several stems 10–50 cm. tall from a mostly creeping woody rhizome; stems usually only leafy at the upper nodes, glabrous to densely pubescent, sometimes becoming covered with soft corky bark.. Leaf-blades narrowly elliptic to elliptic but variable and sometimes obovate, elliptic-ovate or linear-oblong, 3–22 cm. long, 0.6–5.4 cm. wide, rounded to acute at the apex, narrowly cuneate at the base, glabrous to pubescent above and beneath, sometimes densely so on the venation beneath rendering it almost velvety to the touch, mostly distinctly paler beneath, thin to ± coriaceous, sometimes drying yellowish green; domatia absent; nodules mostly numerous, scattered in the lamina and often, at least when dry, not easy to see; petiole 0.3–2 cm. long, glabrous or pubescent; stipules ovate-triangular, 3–8 mm. long, entire at the apex or bifid for almost 1 mm., either thin and soon deciduous or thick and woody and ± persistent.. Flowers heterostylous, 5-merous, in usually ± dense slightly branched inflorescences 1.5–5 cm. long; peduncle 0.5–3 cm. long, pubescent or glabrescent; secondary branches 0.3–1.3 cm. long, similarly hairy; pedicels 1–2 mm. long, attaining 5 mm. in fruit, glabrous or pubescent; bracts small, filiform, ± 3 mm. long.. Calyx-tube subglobose, ± 1 mm. long, glabrous or pubescent; limb cupuliform, 0.75–1.5 mm. tall, usually glabrous, more rarely densely hairy; lobes mostly triangular-lanceolate, unequal, 1–2 mm. long, usually ± ciliate on the margins, or rarely lobes obsolete.. Corolla white or cream, glabrous outside; tube 3–5 mm. long; lobes narrowly oblong, 2.5–3.5 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide.. Stamens with filaments 1.5 mm. long in short-styled flowers, 0.1–0.2 mm. long in long-styled flowers.. Style 3 mm. long in short-styled flowers, 3.5–6.5 mm. long in long-styled flowers; stigma-lobes 0.5–1 mm. long.. Drupes red, didymously biglobose, 3.5–6 mm. tall, 7–10 mm. wide, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes with only 1 pyrene due to abortion; pyrenes subglobose, 5 mm. long, 4 mm. wide and thick.. Seeds subglobose, ventral surface with a deep Y-or V-shaped fissure and, save for the area of the junction of the 2 pyrenes, having a spherical air space between the hard outer layers and the albumen, which is not otherwise ruminate.