Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Small trees 4–10 m tall, young parts pale brown strigose–tomentose.

Stems: Branches whitish to pale brown flocculose–strigose to subglabrate.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades elliptic to broadly or occasionally narrowly obovate, (4–)9–27 cm long, (2–) 3.5–11 cm wide. Apex short-acuminate to acute. Base attenuate. Upper surfaces with slightly impressed veins, at least sparsely whitish flocculose–strigose when young, soon glabrate; lower surfaces with slightly raised veins, usually moderately whitish or occasionally brown turning whitish flocculose–strigose, occasionally sparsely so; blades, chartaceous to slightly coriaceous, moderately rugose. Margins entire sometimes slightly revolute. Lateral veins 15–21 pairs. Petioles 0.8–3 cm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescences pale brown strigose–tomentose. peduncles 3–10(–20) mm long, pedicels 2–6 mm long, bracts subulate, 1–5 mm long. Flowers unisexual, 7–13 in axillary or cauline, simple, corymbose inflorescences. Calyx cup-shaped, sepals 5, distinct, lanceolate to ovate, 2–3 mm long, pale brown tomentulose, apex acute. Corolla of 5 petals, white, 12– 13 mm long. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals, distinct; filaments 5–6 mm long, those of pistillate flowers 3–4 mm long; fertile anthers 1.5–2.3 mm long, those of pistillate flowers ca. 1 mm long. Ovary superior, 2-carpellate, 2–3-celled, on a short gynophore, placentation parietal; ovules numerous, in 2 rows per placenta; style 1; stigma capitate.

Fruit: Capsules subglobose to subcuboid; 9–20 mm long; brown or pale brown tomentose when immature; glabrate at maturity; apex rounded to obtuse; the persistent style 2–4 mm long; the valves with woody exocarp 2.5–3.5 mm thick; ± with a median furrow; the surface shallowly to deeply rugose–tuberculate; the troughs between the convolutions narrow; sometimes obscured; seed mass filling the capsules volume. Seeds ca. 10–18; black to brown; irregularly angled and compressed; 6–9 mm long.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Diverse mesic forest and mesic valleys.

Elevation Range: 240–1,220 m.