Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Small trees 3–8 m tall, diffusely branched in upper parts, glabrous.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, distichous. Blades narrowly oblong or sometimes narrowly oblong–oblanceolate or narrowly oblong–elliptic, (6–)8–19.5 cm long, 1.8–3.8 cm wide. Apex bluntly acute to broadly obtuse, usually minutely emarginate. Base obliquely rounded or obliquely cuneate. Surfaces glabrous or puberulent at base; blade, thin, coriaceous. Margins entire. Petioles (1.5–)2–5 mm long, sparsely puberulent or glabrous. Stipules deltate, 1.5–3 mm long, erose.

Flowers: Flowers in cyathia 3–15 in branched, open, cymose inflorescences 7–17 cm long, peduncles 8–20 mm long, puberulent. involucre broadly campanulate, 1.5–2.5 mm high, 3.5–5 mm wide, puberulent, the glands 5–6, yellowish green, upper surface glabrous, lower surface puberulent, usually with a white appendage. 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, 3-carpellate; ovules 1 per cell, anatropous.

Fruit: Capsules green or sometimes tinged reddish purple; especially on angles; angled; 5–10 mm long; up to 8 mm in diameter; scarcely exserted from involucre; gynophores green; erect; exserted ca. 1 mm from involucre; puberulent. Seeds gray; broadly ellipsoid; 2.5–3 mm long; seed coat wrinkled.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Diverse mesic forest.

Elevation Range: (360–)500–760 m.