A profusely branched shrub 2–4.5 m. high; branches glabrous.. Leaves unifoliolate; petioles 10–15 mm. long, cylindrical and swollen at both ends; leaflet ovate, 3.5–9 cm. long, 2–4.2 cm. wide, acuminate or narrowly obtuse at the apex, base cuneate, usually drooping, glabrous, with raised pellucid glands beneath.. Inflorescence of axillary racemes, flowers in glomerules along the long drooping rhachis.. Male flowers with short cup-shaped and shallowly 4-lobed calyx; petals (3–)4, oblong or ovate, 1.5–2.5 mm. long, ± 1 mm. wide, greenish yellow; stamens 7–9 (usually 8), 1.5–3 mm. long (variable in length on the same flower); rudimentary pistil with 2 styles, glabrous.. Female flower with short cup-shaped and barely 4-lobed calyx; petals oblong-lanceolate, 1–2 mm. long, ± 1 mm. wide, cream; rudimentary stamens 8, short, somewhat persistent; ovary bilocular, each locule 1-seeded, glabrous; style very short; stigma ± circular.. Fruit 6–8 mm. in diameter, unilocular by abortion, 1-seeded but the rudimentary abortive seed always visible.. Seeds light brown, ± 6 mm. long, ± 4 mm. in diameter.
Home