Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs.

Stems: Stems erect to scandent, 0.3–2 m long, glabrous, flowering branches 1–6 mm in diameter.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, decussate. Blades elliptic to oblong or broadly lanceolate, 35–165 mm long, 15–75 mm wide. Apex broadly acute to acuminate or rounded, sometimes retuse. Base cuneate to rounded or obtuse, oblique. Surfaces glabrous, rarely pubescent at basal margin. Margins entire. Petioles channeled above, 2–20 mm long, glabrous or pilose above. Stipules acute to rounded–triangular, 1–2 mm long, ciliate, erose, caducous and leaving a scar.

Flowers: Flowers in cyathia solitary in the leaf axils or 2 or more in open, branched cymes, peduncles 3–11 mm long, glabrous. involucre broadly campanulate, 1.5–4 mm high, 2.5–5 mm wide, glabrous to pilose beneath the glands, glands 4–5, purple to red, glabrous. Flowers unisexual and highly reduced. Pistillate flowers solitary, on a gynophore; staminate flowers in 5 groups or cymules, each with 1 to several flowers. Calyx (sepals) absent. Corolla (petals) absent. Male flower reduced to a single stamen, with an articulation at junction of pedicel and filament, subtended by slender bracteoles. Ovary superior; styles white to red, bifid less than half their length, 1–1.5 mm long; stigma thickened.

Fruit: Capsules green to brown; 3–5 mm long; glabrous to villous; especially along the sutures; sometimes glabrate at maturity; gynophores recurved; exserted 1–3 mm from involucre; glabrous. Seeds white to brown; 2–3 mm long; smooth to shallowly rugose.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Wet forests.

Elevation Range: 150–900 m.