Rauvolfia mannii Stapf

Shrub or small tree, 0.3–8 m high; trunk 0.5–2.5 cm in diameter or more; bark scaly, peeling, greenish to greyish brown, lenticellate; branches brown, lenticellate.. Leaves in whorls of 3–6, opposite on some nodes; petiolate; blade elliptic or slightly obovate, 2.5–28 cm long, 0.7–10.5 cm wide, acuminate or cuspidate at the apex, acumen 2–35 mm long, cuneate at the base, glabrous; with 6–19 pairs of secondary veins; petiole 1–27 mm long, glabrous.. Inflorescence terminal or pseudoaxillary, 3–50-flowered, glabrous in all parts; peduncle 0.2–6 cm long; pedicels 1–8 mm long.. Flowers white, lobes pale pink, finely speckled dark red along mid vein; sepals ovate–elliptic, 0.6–2.8 mm long, glabrous; corolla hypocrateriform; tube 2.5–10.5 mm long, glabrous outside; lobes ovate to broadly ovate, dolabriform, often curved to the left, 0.8–3.6 mm long, 0.6–2.4 mm wide, obtuse to rounded at the apex; stamens inserted 2–8 mm from the corolla base; disk cupular, 0.4–0.8 mm high; pistil 1.8–6.5 mm long; ovary globose to ellipsoid; style 0.8–6 mm long; pistil head 0.3–1.2 mm long.. Fruits red or purple-black, often laterally compressed, when apocarpous usually one carpel developing, ovoid to almost ellipsoid, 5–12 mm long, 4–7 mm in diameter; when syncapous obcordate, 5–11 mm long, 4–14 mm wide; seeds 4–11 mm long.

An understorey plant growing in wet places in rainforest, riverine forest and old secondary forest, at elevations from sea-level up to 2,500 metres.

Can be grown by seedlings.