Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Trees, 4–6 m tall, producing distinctive juveniles but these not flowering precociously.

Stems: Stems of juveniles 0.7–1.2 cm diam. unbranched, armed with numerous prickles consisting of a sharp trichome atop a bulbous multicellular base, stems of adults 1.6–2 cm diam. below the leaves and inflorescences, 4–21 cm diam. at base, branching about 1 m above ground, the 4 to 11 branches diverging from trunk at a 45°–60° angle, ascending, sometimes branching sparingly once again, armed with stout conic prickles below, becoming smooth toward apex, sometimes producing short shoots with juvenile foliage, latex white.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades of juveniles elliptic or oblanceolate, 13–27 cm long, 7–17 cm wide across the segments, 0.2–0.4 cm wide between the segments; adults with lamina elliptic or oblanceolate, 31–53 cm long, 10–20 cm wide across the segments, 0.5–4.7 cm wide between the segments. Apex of juvenilles obtuse; adults with apex acute or acuminate. Juveniles: Upper surfaces dark green and glabrous; lower surfaces light green, glabrous, armed with prickles consisting of a sharp trichome atop a bulbous multicellular base. Adults: Upper surfaces dark green and glabrous; lower surfaces light green and pubescent on veins with short stiff curved hairs. Margins (in juvenile plants) pinnately divided, becoming pinnately compound at base, the segments oblong or elliptic, 1–9 x 0.7–2.8 cm, 8 to 10 per side, separated by sinuses, their margin pinnately lobed, cleft, parted, or divided (these secondary segments oblong or narrowly triangular, 2– 18 x 2–10 mm, the apex obtuse); adults with margins pinnately parted or divided, becoming pinnately compound at base, the segments oblong or elliptic, 1.5–12.5 x 0.5–4 cm, 10 to 14 per side, separated by sinuses, their margin pinnately cleft or parted (these secondary segments deltate or triangular, 2–22 x 2–18 mm, the apex acute or acuminate). Juveniles with petiole 3–4 cm long, 0.2–0.3 mm diam. 1/7–⅓ as long as the lamina, armed with prickles consisting of a sharp trichome atop a bulbous multicellular base. Adults with petiole 4.5–6.5 cm long, 3.5–9 mm diam. 1/10–1/8 as long as the lamina, minutely pubescent. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in racemes 6– to 10–flowered, arising below the apical rosette of leaves, the flowers all blooming ± simultaneously; peduncle and rachis horizontal, 35–54 mm long, 4–9 mm diam. glabrous; bracts narrowly oblong, 10–13 x 1.5–1.6 mm, subtending the pedicels, sometimes a few empty ones on the peduncle, deciduous, rounded at apex; pedicels ascending, 9–4 mm long, 0.8–1 mm diam. medially or subapically bibracteolate, glabrous; bracteoles narrowly oblong, 4–5 x 0.8–1.2 mm.; hypanthium obconic, 10–12 mm long, 5–9 mm diam. 1/5–⅓ as long as the corolla, glabrous, attenuate at base. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Calyx 5-lobed, lobes narrowly oblong, 13–19 x 2.6–5 mm, abutting at base but distinct, erect, glabrous, the margin entire, rounded and apiculate at apex, tube adnate to ovary. Corolla zygomatic, white, 38–47 mm long, glabrous; corolla tube arcuate, laterally compressed, 23–28 mm long, 5-6 mm tall at base, narrowing gradually to 3-4 mm tall at mouth, cleft dorsally for ca. half its length; dorsal corolla lobes spreading, 16–19 x 1 mm, ca. ⅔ as long as tube; ventral corolla lobes deflexed, 13–15 x 1 mm. Stamens 5, alternate with corolla lobes, connate; filament tube 32–40 mm long, 1.3–1.5 mm diam. pubescent with long white hairs, free from the corolla; anther tube gently decurved, 2.3–2.7 mm diam., densely pubescent at base and on the connectives; dorsal anthers 11–12 mm long, ca. ⅓ as long as the filament tube; ventral anthers 7.5– 8.5 mm long, their apex crowned by a triangular scale 3-4.5 mm long, formed from loosely concrescent white trichomes, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits, coherent but separating after anthesis or connate and forming a tube into which pollen is shed. Ovary inferior, 2-celled; ovule placentation axile; stigma 2-lobed, wet or dry, 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: Berries bright orange; ellipsoid; 17–21 mm long; 10–15 mm diam. crowned by the persistent calyx lobes. Seeds numerous; brown; broadly ellipsoid; 0.7 mm long; 0.5 mm diam.; the seed coat Type C of Murata (1992; 1995); smooth; shiny; with a straight; short to spatulate dicotyledonous embryo embedded in oily endosperm.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Mesic forest.

Elevation Range: 855–1,522 m.