Russelia sarmentosa Jacq.

Erect, branching herbs to 2 m tall; stems conspicuously slender, stiff, glabrate, sometimes tufted at the nodes, 4-8 angled, the angles drying stramineous. Leaves opposite or ternate, ovate, mostly 2-4 cm long, 1.5-3 cm wide, apically obtuse, acute, or acuminate, basally rounded, obtuse or truncate, rarely cuneate, the margins sharply serrate to serrate crenate, the venation pinnate, with 3-5 con-spicuous arcuate veins on each side, a minor vein extending to the tip of each tooth, ciliate, sparingly pubescent on each side with short, weak, whitish multi-cellular hairs, the hairs beneath fewer and confined mainly to the veins, scattered peltate glands abundant beneath and occasionally above; petioles short, 1-3 mm long, with thickened, basally tufted margins and with a medial callose thickening at the base. Inflorescences axillary fascicles of 1-3 short cymes; peduncles to 1.5 cm long, slender, angled, glandular, glabrate to pubescent, the nodes tufted and subtended with linear, pubescent bracts, the pedicels filiform, 1-3 mm long, slightly longer and stouter in fruit, sparingly glandular, glabrous, drying angled. Flowers small but showy, the calyx 5-lobed nearly to the base, ca. 4 mm long, the lobes long acuminate, basally broad and somewhat inflated to appear im-bricate when pressed, glandular, the costa pubescent; corolla showy scarlet, tubular, 6-15 mm long, sparingly villous near the base, 4-5 lobed, the lobes mostly subequal, short, oblong, the lower lobe bearded near the throat within with stout, unicellular hairs, pilose near the point of filament insertion; stamens 4, the filaments inserted near the base of the corolla tube, glabrous, the anthers ellipsoidal, divaricate, the connective minute, the lower pair situated unequally about 2/3 way up the tube, the upper pair barely exserted; staminode short bearing a sterile knob; ovary smooth, glabrous, narrowly conical ellipsoidal, the stigma linear, situated near the lower anthers. Capsule globose turbinoid, ca. 4 mm across, dehiscing loculicidally and septicidally, the valves venose, beaked, not separating widely, the placentas dark, turbinoid, sometimes somewhat convoluted, the septum remaining with the valves, the locules filled with short, stout, tawny hairs arising from the placentas; seeds dark reddish brown, ca. 0.6 mm long,