Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs or trees(?), new growth minutely grayish appressed puberulent, soon glabrate.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blades oblong–elliptic to elliptic, 10–15 cm long, 4.5–7.5 cm wide. Apex rounded, ± emarginate. Base cuneate. Upper surfaces glabrous; lower surfaces puberulent, becoming glabrate; blade thin, coriaceous. Margins sometimes slightly revolute, margins entire. Primary lateral veins ca. 7–9 pairs, conspicuous, slightly ascending, connected by an arched vein 2–10 mm from margin, venation pinnate, lateral veins connected by an arched submarginal vein, higher order venation forming a reticulate pattern. Petioles 12–20 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers usually 1–3 in axillary or cauline cymes, peduncles ca. 1–5 mm long, grayish puberulent, bracteoles deltate, ca. 0.5 mm long, puberulent, pedicels 2–5 mm long, flared at base of calyx, grayish puberulent. Flowers bisexual (perfect) or functionally unisexual (and then plants monoecious). Calyx of 4 sepals; sepals imbricate, pistillate flowers with sepals broadly deltate–ovate, ca. 1.5 mm long, minutely puberulent externally, glabrous within. Corolla of 4 petals, valvate, pistillate flowers petals deltate, ca. 2.5 mm long, sparsely puberulent externally, glabrous within. Stamens 8, in 2 whorls, distinct, reduced but always present in functionally pistillate flowers, pistillate flowers Stamens rudimentary, nectary disk glabrous. Ovary superior, 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, pistillate flowers ovary puberulent; style glabrous, ca. 1.6–1.7 mm long.

Fruit: Capsules 25–35 mm wide; carpels connate ca. 1/6 their length; 12–18 mm long; exocarp sparsely appressed puberulent; especially near base; endocarp glabrous. Seeds 1–2 per carpel; 5–6 mm long.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Wet forest and Cloud forest

Elevation Range: 800–1,110 m.