Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Small shrubs, new growth hirsute, becoming glabrate.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite or whorled (3 per node). Blades oblanceolate to obovate or oblong, sometimes oblong–ovate, 4–13 cm long, 1.5–6.5 cm wide. Apex acute to narrowly obtuse, occasionally some leaves with apex rounded. Base weakly cordate. Surfaces glossy, glabrous; blade firm–chartaceous. Margins entire. Primary lateral veins 10–15 pairs, connected by an arched vein 1–6 mm from margin, venation pinnate, lateral veins connected by an arched submarginal vein, higher order venation forming a reticulate pattern. Petioles 0–10 mm long or, when leaves ternate, up to 20 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 1–3 in slender, glabrous, axillary cymes, peduncles 8–13 mm long, pedicels 8–35 mm long, bracteoles up to 1 mm long. Flowers bisexual (perfect) or functionally unisexual (and then plants monoecious). Calyx of 4 sepals; sepals of pistillate flowers ovate–deltate, 2–3 mm long, glabrous, imbricate. Corolla of 4 petals; petals valvate, greenish white, deltate, 4–7 mm long, glabrous. Stamens 8, in 2 whorls, distinct, reduced but always present in functionally pistillate flowers. Ovary superior, glabrous, 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, slender, ca. 5 mm long, terminating in 4 short stigmatic branches.

Fruit: Capsules 14–22 mm wide; carpels connate ¼–⅓ their length; 7–11 mm long; exocarp and endocarp glabrous. the carpels dehiscing along the upper suture; exocarp. Seeds 1–2 per carpel; ca. 5 mm long. 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: Known from mesic forest.

Elevation Range: 410–550 m.