Description

Key Characters: Fruit a capsule; flowers in terminal cymes; sepals and petals distinct; staminal filaments distinct; leaves opposite; petioles ± as long as blades or less; expanding vegetative buds rounded at the tip; leaves not rugose, glabrous or lower surface woolly or appressed pubescent.

Growth Form: Shrub

Stems: Bark usually rough and fissured, separating in thick flakes, sometimes smooth and separating in long thin strips, vegetative buds obovoid.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blade shape obovate to orbicular or sometimes elliptic, broadly ovate, or ovate, 1–8 cm long, 1–5.5 cm wide. Apex rounded or sometimes obtuse to acute. Base cuneate to cordate. Upper surfaces glabrous; lower surfaces glabrous or woolly or appressed pubescent. Margins entire and revolute to flat. Several pairs of raised veins radiating from base. Petioles usually short, usually much less than ⅓ as long as blades, 1–16 mm long, 1–3 mm wide. Stipules vestigial or absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescences of 2–5 pairs of cymules, glabrous or appressed or woolly pubescent; peduncles 7–18 mm long, 1–3 mm wide, pedicels 2–8 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, bracts broadly ovate to suborbicular, 5–10 mm long, 3–5 mm wide; hypanthium 3–7 mm high, 3–8 mm wide. Flowers red, pink, orange, bisexual (perfect), actinomorphic. Sepals rounded to triangular, 1.5–4 mm long, 1.5–3 mm wide. Petals obovate to orbicular, 2.5–5 mm long, 2–4.5 mm wide. Stamens 1–3 cm long. Ovary nearly superior; style 1.3–3 cm long.

Fruit: Capsules slightly included to exerted; fruiting hypanthium 3–8 mm long and wide; pubescent or glabrous.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: