Shrub or much-branched deciduous tree to 9 m. tall.. Leaf-lamina ovate, ovate-elliptic, up to 9 × 5.5 cm., lower surface softly pubescent or hairs confined to nerves and nerve-axils or completely glabrous, apex acute to shortly acuminate, petiole up to 1.2 cm. long.. Inflorescence a (3–)4–12-flowered fascicle terminating leafless lateral shoots of limited growth; bracts ± 0.2 cm. long, squamiform.. Flowers creamy white, fragrant, usually precocious.. Pedicels 0.6–1.5 cm. long.. Calyx 0.2–0.35 cm. long, denticulate, densely puberulous over whole surface.. Petals linear-spathulate, 2–3.2 × 0.3–0.5 cm., sparsely to densely puberulous outside.. Staminal tube 1.6–2.4 cm. long, distinctly curved and gradually narrowed from apex to base, glabrous at throat inside but hairy in lower half; appendages alternating with the anthers in pairs, shorter than the anthers, the members of a pair fused from one-quarter to three-quarters of length.. Ovary (7–8–)9–10-locular, densely puberulous; style 2.5–3 cm. long, puberulous in lower half; style-head ovoid, its base exserted 0.8–1.4 cm. beyond the staminal-tube.. Capsule depressed-globose, ± 0.8 × 1.3 cm., shallowly sulcate, thinly woody, sparsely to densely puberulous.. Seeds black; aril red.. Fig. 1/4, p. 9.
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