Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Trees ca. 8 m tall, new growth appressed puberulent.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blades ovate to elliptic–ovate, 5–13 cm long, 2.8–5.6 cm wide. Apex rounded to subacute. Base rounded or subcordate. Surfaces glabrous; blades chartaceous. Margins entire. Veins pinnate, lateral veins connected by an arched submarginal vein, higher order venation forming a reticulate pattern. Petioles 20–50 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 5–7 in axillary cymes, sparsely appressed puberulent throughout, peduncles 2–7(–10) mm long, pedicels 1–3 mm long, bracts small, opposite. Flowers bisexual (perfect) or functionally unisexual (and then plants monoecious). Calyx of 4 sepals; Sepals of pistillate flowers deltate, ca. 2 mm long, densely appressed puberulent, imbricate. Corolla of 4 petals; petals valvate, petals of pistillate flowers oblong–deltate, ca. 3.5 mm long, puberulent, nectary disk puberulent. Stamens 8, in 2 whorls, distinct, reduced but always present in functionally pistillate flowers. Ovary superior (pistillate flowers), glabrous, 1.3 mm long; style ca. 0.7 mm long, ovary 4-celled and 4-lobed, carpels connate, only slightly distinct at apex to almost entirely distinct; ovules 2 per cell, hemitropous, 1 ascending; style 1, terminating in 4 short stigmatic branches.

Fruit: Fruit 18–22 mm wide; of distinct follicles 9–11 mm long; exocarp and endocarp glabrous; the carpels dehiscing along the upper suture; exocarp. Seeds 1–2 per cell; glossy black when ripe; crustaceous; ovoid; sometimes angled from compression; embryo straight in fleshy endosperm; radicle short; cotyledons compressed; ovate; putamen brown; warty.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Mixed mesic forest; ridges; slopes and near streams.

Elevation Range: 375 m.