Erect herb or subshrub, simple or branched.. Leaves alternate, petiolate with petioles 0.5–2 cm. long; blades ovate, oblong, lanceolate or obovate, 5–12 cm.long × 1.5–5.5 cm. broad, narrowed into the petiole, shortly acuminate or acute, rigidly membranous, entirely glabrous.. Raceme elongate, densely spike-like, 10–35 cm. long; bracts 3–6 mm. long, linear, caducous.. Flowers 1.5–4 mm. long; pedicels ± 1 mm. long, papillose, lengthening in fruit.. Sepals 5, equal, 2 mm. long, lanceolate, acute, soon deciduous.. Petals 5, unequal, 1–2 mm. long, broadly obovate, 1-to 5-fid, soon deciduous.. Stamens 10–11, 2–3 mm. long; anthers basifixed; filaments deciduous.. Ovary obovate and compressed below, drawn out into a club-shaped or cylindrical tube above, very shortly 2-toothed at the apex.. Capsule pendulous, obovate, up to 1.7 cm. long × 1 cm. broad, compressed or slightly inflated, very shortly mucronate and closed at the mouth.. Seeds 8–11, reniform, about 1 mm. long, densely tuberculate, black when ripe.. Fig. 2.
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