Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Branching shrub, more than 33 cm tall.

Stems: Young shoots glabrous, leafy branchlets 1–3 mm in diameter, dark purple, older stems 3–6 mm in diameter, purplish, internodes 1–6 mm long, nodes not enlarged, leaf scars 3–4 mm wide, lunate, whitish, nearly flush, bundle scar single, leaves clustered at the stem apex.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades oblanceolate, 4,5–7.5 cm long, 1.9–2.9 cm wide, green, thick chartaceous. Apex subacute. Base cuneate. Upper surfaces at first appressed hirsutulous by the midrib, but early glabrate; lower surfaces glabrous. Margins low apiculate crenulate. Secondary veins 7–9 in each half, strongly ascending. Petioles 15–25 mm long, glabrous, slender, channeled above. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in panicle 17 x 10 cm, of several racemes, all minutely puberulous. Flowers bisexual (perfect); pedicels 5–7 mm long. Calyx of 4 sepals, 8 mm long, ovate to broadly oblanceolate, thickened and puberulous in the central area, but the broad margins white and membranous. Corolla of 4 petals, 0.8 mm long, spatulate, white. Stamens 6, exserted; filaments 1 mm long; anthers 0.2 mm in diameter, subglobose. Ovary superior, 0.7 mm long, orbicular; style 0.2 mm long; stigmas 0.2 mm in diameter, discoid.

Fruit: Capsules 3.5–4 mm in diameter; orbicular; shiny; reticulate; the apex rounded or slightly emarginate. Seeds 1.3–1.7 mm in diameter; orbicular; flat; shining; reddish brown; with a pale membranous wing 0.1–0.2 mm wide.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Rocky cliffs.

Elevation Range: