Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs 0.8–1.5(–2) m tall.

Stems: Stems unbranched or few–branched near base, rounded to angular, pubescent with multicellular hairs or glabrate.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, closely spaced, borne on upper 3–6 nodes. Leaves of a pair subequal, symmetrical. Blades elliptic to elliptic–ovate, 26–46 cm long, 6.5–16 cm wide. Apex acute to acuminate. Base cuneate. Upper surfaces glabrate except the midrib sparsely puberulent; lower surfaces glabrate except veins sparsely brown pilose, young leaves more densely pilose all over, relatively chartaceous. Margins coarsely serrate, subentire toward base, occasionally only serrulate. Veins not raised on lower surface. Petioles 3.5–11 cm long, usually broadly winged, base sometimes clasping the stem or perfoliate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 5–7 in dense subcapitate clusters of often compound cymes arising in the leaf axils, appressed brown pilose throughout, sometimes sparsely so, peduncles 2–3 mm long, pedicels 4–14 mm long, bracts elliptic, variable in size, 8–20 mm long, partly connate or distinct, sometimes perhaps 1 of a pair reduced or aborted and a single large bract associated with a cyme, all bracts usually deciduous after anthesis. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Calyx 2–5(6)-lobed, zygomorphic, fusiform in bud, tipped by a beak 3–7 mm long, in anthesis pale green(?), 14–28 mm long, deciduous after anthesis, tube 10–18 mm long, appressed brown pilose, glabrous within, upper 3 lobes 6–13 mm long, lower 2 lobes 6–10 mm long, all lobes usually separating by anthesis. Corolla usually bilabiate, white, usually fleshy, tube narrowly funnelform, curved near middle, 14–18 mm long, ca. 5–7 mm in diameter medially, glabrous, upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip 3-lobed, upper lobes broadly elliptic, 6–7 mm long, 5–7 mm wide, lower lobes broadly elliptic to elliptic, 7–12 mm long, 5–9 mm wide, the lobes imbricate in bud. Stamens 5, inserted about halfway up corolla tube, the 2 upper Stamens fertile, others staminodial, +/– with abortive anthers; fertile anthers coherent positioned in throat of corolla tube, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits or occasionally by apical pores. Ovary superior, oblong–ovoid, 2-carpellate, 1-celled, placentation parietal, placentas 2, ± intruded, rarely joined in center and dividing ovary into 2 cells; ovules numerous, anatropous, glabrous, apex rounded or with a stylar beak; ; style ca. 5–9 mm long, glabrous; stigma capitate, 2-lobed, lobes usually elliptic.

Fruit: Fruit a fleshy or firm berry; white; ellipsoid; 1.6–2.4 cm long; glabrous; often tipped by the persistent stylar beak. Seeds numerous; ellipsoid; minute; 0.35–0.5 mm long; the surface reticulate.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Occurring in very wet; shaded sites in gulches and along streams in mesic valleys; occasionally in wet forest.

Elevation Range: 150–490(–850) m.