Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Subdioecious shrubs 1–1.5 m tall with erect, brittle stems.

Stems: branchlets terete (cylindrical), glabrous except minutely puberulent at nodes, older branches with brown, longitudinally fissured bark.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blades oblong–lanceolate to oblong–ovate, 3–11.5 cm long × 0.7–3.2 cm wide. Surfaces adxially glabrous and lustrous, abaxial surface glabrous or sparsely hirtellous, more densely so on costa, chartaceous. Margins entire. Secondary veins 3–6 pairs, festooned brochidodromous, tertiary veins conspicuously reticulate, weakly prominulous on both surfaces, translucent when fresh and visible to 4º. Petioles 2–16 mm long, narrowly winged, glabrous or puberulent abaxially. Stipules externally glabrous, with sheath 1.5–3 mm long, the awn 2–5 mm long.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescences (6–)10–67–flowered, cymose–paniculiform, dichasial, 2–4 × 2–4.5 cm, subtended by a pair of leaf-like bracts, the axes glabrous or glabrate, the primary branches 2–3 pairs, the monochasial ultimate branches each bearing 3–12 flowers, each subtended by a glabrous or sparsely puberulent, subulate to linear–oblong bract 2–8 mm long; hypanthium obconic, glabrous, in staminate flowers 1-1.5 mm long, in pistillate flowers 1.5-2 mm long. Flowers insect-pollinated, unisexual. Hermaphroditic flowers occur sporadically on staminate plants. Calyx 4-lobed, lobes linear–oblong to linear–oblanceolate, 2.5–6 × 0.3–0.8 mm, glabrous or margins ciliolate, erect–spreading, green with purple tint when fresh. Corolla of staminate flowers tubular 10–16 mm long, lobes 2.5–3.5 mm long, oblong–ovate to elliptic, Pistillate flowers: corolla tube 9–10 mm long, lobes 2–2.5 mm long, triangular–ovate. Staminate flowers: anthers 2–2.5 mm long, polleniferous, inserted 4 mm below top of tube. Pistillate flowers: anthers 1.2–1.3 mm long, abortive and non–polleniferous, inserted 3 mm below mouth of tube; anthers dithecal, opening. by longitudinal slits. Hermaphroditic flowers resemble staminate flowers in having larger, polleniferous anthers. Ovary inferior or partly so, 2(-4)-locular; ovules few to numerous on fleshy placentas near middle of septum. Staminate flowers: style plus stigma 4–7.5(–12) mm long, about ⅔ the length of the tube, villous toward base; stigma slightly bilobed apically, 1–1.5 mm long. Pistillate flowers: style plus stigma typically 6–11 mm long, villous toward base; stigma slightly bilobed apically, 3.5–4 mm long, swollen, papillose, stigma tips exserted from mouth of tube. Hermaphroditic flowers resemble staminate flowers with stigmas included but apparently functional.

Fruit: Capsules broadly obovoid; 3.5–4.5 × 4–5 mm; glabrous; weakly bisulcate; weakly compressed laterally; weakly costate; calyx lobes persistent; spreading; apical portion of capsules 0.5–1 mm long; minutely puberulent; dehiscence initially loculicidal then tardily separating septicidally. Seeds numerous; dark brown or blackish; 0.5–0.6 × 0.25–0.4 mm; irregularly obovate to ellipsoid; somewhat angulate; compressed laterally; surface papillose with prominent; bubble-like protuberances; with well-developed oily endosperm; or endosperm occasionally scanty or absent.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Known only from north facing mesic forest; just below and along cliffs on west side of summit.

Elevation Range: ca. 366 m.