Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Erect to ascending subshrubs 3–10 dm tall.

Stems: Stems often swollen at the nodes, terete, 4–angled or –ridged, few–branched, glabrous, becoming sparsely then moderately glandular–puberulent in the inflorescence, the internodes purple.

Roots: Fibrous root system.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Leaves opposite. Blades oblong–elliptic, 7.5–15 cm long, 1.8–4.1 cm wide. Apex acute to weakly acuminate. Base leaf bases often connate around the stem, base gradually attenuate. Surfaces light green or yellowish green, Upper surfaces slightly glossy, the Lower surfaces glossy, slightly thickened and rubbery, chartaceous when dry, usually slightly undulate, with only the midvein evident or sometimes with an additional pair of inco Margins entire, slightly thickened and weakly revolute, especially toward the base. Midvein ± slightly excentric. Petioles 0.5–1.1 cm long, pale green, purple toward the base, weakly± grooved. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescence terminal, with 27–70 flowers, 20–48 cm long, diffuse, flowers widely spaced, branches spreading, progressively more densely puberulent to apex, the hairs straight, erect, 0.1–0.35 mm long; bracts subulate, the lowermost of the central axis elliptic-lanceolate, as green as the leaves, recurved and often twisted, the lower ones 30–45 mm long, those of the branches and flowers 5–18 mm long; pedicels (7–)10–23 mm long, elongating slightly in fruit, slightly asymmetrically flattened. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Sepals 4.3–5.1 mm long, lanceolate, green, opaque, strongly reflexed and convex in the proximal ¼, producing a small transverse bulge, the distal part shallowly concave, oriented ca. 40° to 80° angle to the pedicel, glandular–puberulent, a few of the hairs non–glandular, margins scarious, ciliate, apex long–attenuate. Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens 10; filaments dimorphic, the antisepalous whorl 7.5 mm long, the alternate whorl 5.3–5.8 mm long; anthers 0.75–0.85 mm long, subequal, pale yellow. Ovary superior, 1-celled, placentation free-central; tyles 3.

Fruit: Capsules 3.1–3.5 mm long; ovoid. Seeds ca. 1.3 mm long; orbicular–reniform; compressed; the surface rugose; perisperm starchy; hard or rarely soft; true endosperm absent.

Ploidy:

Habitat: In open areas of diverse mesic forest.

Elevation Range: 395–800 m.