Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Plant 1–2.5 m tall.

Stems: Stem 1–1.5 m tall x 1.8–3 cm diam., cicatrices 3–4 mm tall x 6.5–10 mm wide, transversely rhombic, the corners acute.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades linear, oblanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, 11.8–20 cm long x 0.9–2.8 cm wide. Apex acute or acuminate. Base attenuate. Surfaces glabrous or the lower surfaces midrib pubescent. Margins distinctly revolute. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescence 0.5–1 m tall, 2–7–branched (rarely unbranched in small plants), each branch 12–25–flowered and cylindrical in outline, its axis green, glabrous; peduncle sparsely covered with sterile bracts that rapidly decrease in size acropetally; sterile bracts 20–95 mm long x 4–13 mm wide, narrowly oblong, narrowly elliptic, or lanceolate, the apex acute, the base cuneate; floral bracts 20–48 mm long x 5–10 mm wide, narrowly elliptic or lanceolate, the apex acuminate, the base cuneate; pedicels 22–60 mm long, of more–or-less equal length throughout; hypanthium 5–10 mm long x 7–11 mm diam. broadly obconic, 1/6–1/8 as long as the corolla, glabrous. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Calyx 5-lobed, lobes 10–22 mm long x 3.5–6 mm wide, narrowly triangular or lanceolate, equaling to 4.4 times longer than the hypanthium, the margin entire, the apex acuminate and sometimes apiculate, sepals connate, tube adnate to ovary. Corolla zygomorphic, dorsally cleft almost to base, 58-78 mm long, white, glabrous; tube 19-31 mm long x 8-12.5 mm diam. at middle, suberect, expanding slightly towards the mouth, 2-3.5 times longer than broad; dorsal lobes 27-45 mm long x 4.5-6.5 mm wide, 0.9-2.4 times as long as the tube; ventral lip 24-40 mm long x 17-24 mm wide. Stamens 5, alternate with corolla lobes; anthers with apical tufts of white hairs on all 5, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits, coherent but separating after anthesis or connate and forming a tube into which pollen is shed; filaments distinct or connate above, attached to the epigynous nectary disk or to base of corolla, rarely adnate to corolla tube; filament tube 61–78 mm long, suberect, 4–5 times longer than anther tube, glabrous; anther tube 4–4.5 mm dlam.; dorsal anthers 14–16 mm long; ventral anthers 9–10 mm long. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, often crowned with an annular nectary disk; ovule placentation axile, or when 1-celled with 2 parietal placentas; stigmas wet or dry, 2-lobed, appressed and nonreceptive as the style grows through the anther tube, pushing out the pollen, after which the stigmas spread apart and become receptive.

Fruit: Loculicidal capsules; 18–21 mm long x 9–10 mm diam.; dehiscent at apex by 2 valves. Seeds numerous; with a straight; short to spatulate dicotyledonous embryo embedded in oily endosperm; 1.5–1.8 mm long x 0.8–1 mm wide; honey–brown.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Known only from montane wet shrublands.

Elevation Range: 670–860 m.