Climbing or sprawling woody herb or shrub up to 4 m, armed; sympodia difoliate; hairs brownish to reddish stellate, shortly stalked or sessile, ± regular or with short rays sometimes bearing a shorter central ray; prickles yellowish but fuscous or reddish-brown upwards, or brown to reddish with age, shining, 0.5-6 mm long, 0.2-6 mm wide at the base, laterally compressed, broad based, mostly recurved, a few ± straight, hairy downwards, smooth and glabrous upwards. Branches brownish to reddish tomentose when young, ashy-grey or brownish when old, glabrescent with the basal stalk of the hairs persistent, with few to many recurved prickles. Leaves solitary, occasionally appearing geminate; petiole 0.4-4.5 cm long; lamina ± membranous or papyraceous, 3-14 x 1-7.5 cm, broadly lanceolate or ovate to ovate-oblong, base rounded to slightly acute and ± unequalsided, apex often obtuse or occasionally acute, subentire to lobed, the lobes triangular to rounded, obtuse or rounded, densely hairy at first, soon sparsely covered with small hairs and becoming subglabrous above, pubescent and paler beneath, with 3-5 pairs of curved-ascending lateral nerves, the midrib often with sparse, ± straight prickles. Cymes appearing lateral, leaf-remote, unbranched, less often once-forked, umbelliform or racemiform, 1.5-4.5 cm long, 3-24-flowered, shortly reddish tomentose, unarmed or with few ± straight prickles, all flowers hermaphrodite and fertile; peduncle 0-13 mm long, curved, later ± erect. Flowers 4-merous, nodding; pedicels 4-15 mm long, slender but thickened distally, in fruit elongated to 20 mm, ± erect. Calyx 2-4 mm long, 2-4 mm across, somewhat accrescent, shortly campanulate or cupular, shortly reddish tomentose outside; lobes ± unequal, 0.5-2(3) x 0.5-1.5 mm, ± triangular, often noticeably attenuate, acute or slightly obtuse, in fruit enlarged to 5 x 2.5 mm. Corolla white or slightly pinkish to bluish, occasionally violaceous or only so on the nerves, stelliform or stelliform-rotate; limb 12-17 mm across; lobes 5-9 x 1.5-2.5 mm, lanceolate, oblong-linear or ligulate, slightly obtuse or acute, hairy outside and along the midvein inside, spreading or somewhat ± reflexed. Stamen filaments 0.5-1 (1.5) mm long; anthers 4-6.5 mm long, linear-lanceolate or linear-oblong in outline, emarginate at both ends, conniving. Ovary 0.8-1 mm in diameter, ± globose, with stipitate, minute glands and 1-2 simple hairs or ± glabrous; style 7-10 mm long, ± exceeding the stamens, straight but often somewhat curved at the apex, with shortly stipitate, minute glands and 1-2 simple hairs from the base to the middle. Fruit shining red when ripe, drying dirty sub fuscous, 10-16 mm in diameter, globose, opaque. Seeds numerous, sub shining, pale yellowish, ± 2-3 x 2-2.5 mm, compressed, reniform or sub-orbicular, minutely reticulate all over.
Home