Shrub or tree to 8 m tall; twigs finely tomentose with whitish, appressed, stalked, porrect stellae, soon glabrescent leaving a powdery surface. Leaves to 15 cm long, ovate, apically acuminate, basally rounded, above green, sometimes drying dark, with fine, sessile, porrect, pauciradiate hairs, beneath hoary with appressed, stalked stellae; petiole short, to 8 mm long; minor leaves often present, often associated with dichotomies of the stem rather than solitary major leaves. Inflorescence almost terminal or becoming opposite the leaves or occasionally lateral, an open panicle, the peduncle unbranched or ternately branched, densely pubescent; pedicels 3-6 mm long becoming 10-15 mm long but not stout in fruit. Flowers small; calyx 3 mm long, lobed '/3-1/2 the way down, the lobes short-deltoid, the midvein evident, 1.5 mm long in flower, becoming 3 mm long in fruit, densely pubescent outside, glabrous within; corolla white, 7-9 mm across, deeply lobed, the lobes appressed tomentose outside, glabrous within; filaments glabrous, connate basally, the anthers 2.5-3 mm long, stout, opening introrsely by large terminal pores; ovary persistently tomentose, the style pubescent on the basal half. Fruit a globose berry, maturing purple (Lewis), 7-9 mm across; seed flattened-discoid, 2 mm across.
Clearings, gaps, or edges in wet and moist forest, often in secondary habitats; at elevations up to 1,700 metres.
Home