Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Trees 2–4 m tall.

Stems: Bark grey–brown, trunk with branches or knobby protuberances, branchlets glabrous, light brown, 3–4 mm diam., nodose with leaf and stipule scars.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, decussate. blades elliptic to narrowly elliptic or ovate–elliptic, 40–76 ×11–22(–26) mm. Apex acute. Base attenuate and decurrent. Surfaces glabrous, small pit domatia often present located Abaxial surface along midrib near juncture with secondary veins, sometimes absent. Margins slightly revolute. Pinnately veined with 8–10 pairs of secondary veins, higher level venation conspicuously reticulate, occasionally impressed adaxially. Petioles 5–11 mm long, narrowly winged distally, purple–brown. Stipules present 7–10 mm long, connate for ⅓–1⁄2 of their length into a cylindrical sheath (1–)2–4 mm long, free apical portion (3–)4–6 mm long, acuminate to a conspicuous, thickly carinate–subulate apex with a claw-like appendage, externally glabrous, internally densely hirtellous–pilose distally. sheath margins with shortly ciliate fringe and sometimes a few short callous protuberances or glandular appendages 0.1–0.2 mm long, as long as the ciliate hairs.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescences axillary, mostly simple and capituliform, subtended by a pair of connate, broadly ovate bracts, 6–8–flowered, peduncles 20–35 mm long, or rarely bearing an additional peduncle with one additional pair of subsessile, 3–5–flowered cymules subtended by connate, broadly ovate bracts 2–3 × 2–3 mm with ciliate margins. staminate flowers mostly in groups of 6–8 on peduncles 20–28 × 0.7–0.8 mm, subtended by a pair of connate, broadly ovate bracts 2–3 × 2–3 mm with ciliate margins; flowers subsessile. pistillate flowers and inflorescence not seen. Flowers unisexual, dioecious, often heterostylous; insect-pollinated. Calyx of staminate flowers cup-shaped, irregularly (4–)8-lobed, cup 0.8–1 mm long, the lobes 1–2.2 × 0.8–1.5 mm, apex entire or irregularly 2–4–dentate, glabrous or sparsely hirtellous. Pistillate flowers not seen. Corolla of staminate flower (only seen in bud) glabrous, 6–6.5 mm long, the tube 2–3 mm long, 4–5-lobed, the lobes 3.5–4 mm long; nectary disk usually present. Female flowers not seen. Stamens 8, the staminal filaments 1.5–2 mm long, the anthers 3.6–4 mm long, apex acuminate, base sagittate, the pistillode 2.5 mm long; anthers pendulous, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary likely inferior; Female flowers not seen.

Fruit: Infructescences with peduncle 20–28 mm long; flattened; fruits in terminal cluster of 3–6 subtended by cupuliform pair of connate bracts 2–3 × 2–2.5 mm; margins ciliolate; fruits orange when fresh; broadly ellipsoid to broadly obovoid; 5.5–6 × 4.5–5 mm; glabrous; surface drying wrinkled; weakly 4–ribbed; apex with persistent irregularly lobed calyx 1.5 mm long. Pyrenes 2; broadly ellipsoid to broadly obovoid; plano–convex; 5.7–6 × 4.1–4.5 mm; brown; with low dorsal ridge in distal ⅓–1⁄2. Seeds with well-developed oily endosperm; or endosperm occasionally scanty or absent.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Steep; narrow wind swept ridges; slopes; and boulder strewn stream banks.

Elevation Range: 790–1160 m