Vitex patula E.A.Bruce

Many-stemmed, spreading shrub (1)2.5-4(5) m tall; bark fissured, grey to greyish-brown; young branches orange-tawny tomentellous to shortly lanate on new growth. Leaves 3-sometimes 5-foliolate; petiole (1)3-7 cm long, terete; median petiolule 0.2-1.0 cm long; leaflets (1.5)3-9 x (1)1.5-4 cm, oblong-elliptic to narrow obovate, rounded-obtuse or in apical leaves shortly acuminate to acute at the apex, occasionally emarginate, cuneate at the base, entire or sometimes margin ± crenate in upper half, somewhat chartaceous, drying a dark olive-green, paler beneath, ± scabridulous above with minute bristles, sparsely puberulous to shortly lanate in young leaves beneath with hairs mainly on the nerves, gland-dotted, nerves not or slightly raised above, raised beneath, the blade flat not bullate. Inflorescences axillary, patent spreading, of ± sturdy densely-flowered compound dichasia, 3-10 cm long, orange-tawny tomentose; bracteoles 0.5-1.5 cm long, usually linear. Calyx obconical, 5-lobed, gland-dotted, lanate outside with shortly tangled pilose hairs, accrescent in fruit; tube 2-3 mm long; lobes 0.5-1.3(2) mm long, erect. Corolla c. 8 mm long, shortly lanate outside, not gland-dotted; tube creamy-white, 4-5 mm long, curved; lobes mauve, at an obtuse angle to the tube, middle lower lobe 2-2.3 x 2-2.3 mm. Stamens not exserted from the corolla tube; filaments with glandular hairs. Ovary globose, rounded and pubescent at the apex; not gland-dotted; style 3.5-4.5 mm long. Fruit an ellipsoid-spherical drupe, 0.9-1.3 x 0.7-0.9 cm, apex rounded, the lower c. 1/3 enclosed in the enlarged calyx, black at maturity; fruiting calyx cupshaped, pubescent, not gland-dotted.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in deciduous woodland and on sandy and rocky soils. It grows between 20-400 m above sea level.