Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Scandent or decumbent vines to several meters long.

Stems: Stems flexuous, spreading, 1–2.5 m, terete (cylindrical) or weakly 4–angled, evenly pubesent to moderately tomentose, hairs spreading to slightly antrorse, occasionally glandular, young stems with pink to purple–red tinge.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blades broadly ovate, blades 3.5–7(–9) X 2.5–4.7 cm. Apex acute to attenuate. Base cordate, rarely truncate. Upper surfaces glabrate with sparse pubescence along midrib and veins; lower surfaces sparsely to densely pubescent, especially on midrib and veins, blades light green, membranaceous. Margins broadly crenate, occasionally crenate-denticulate. Petioles 7–18 mm, densely pubescent, young growth with pink– to purple–red tinge. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 5(6) per verticillaster, axillary, with 2(3) raised on peduncles (2–)5–9 mm, pubescent, bracts linear–filiform to subulate–filiform, often reflexed, ca. 6 x 1 mm, pubescent, pedicels (4–)7–11 mm pubescent, occasionally glandular. Calyx radially symmetrical, broadly campanulate, inflated in live material and well separated from base and tube of corolla, 17–24 mm, enlarging in fruit, pubescent to glandular–pubescent, becoming glabrate in fruit, teeth lanceolate–deltate, foliaceous, 7–10 X 5–8 mm at base, with distinct midvein, apex acute to acuminate, splitting longitudinally, usually persistent or sometimes only ventral 1/2 persistent. Corolla bilabiate, purple, pubescent externally with scattered longer glandular hairs, glabrate within, light green tinge clouded along inner throat, tube narrowly funnelform, strongly falcate, 20–24 mm, upper lip entire, 7–9 mm, entire or 2-lobed, flat or concave, lower lip 3 -lobbed, 3–5 mm, the lobes flat or margins revolute, ovate, of similar size, distal portion of corolla sparsely to densely pubescent externally, the hairs simple or multicellular, occasionally glandular pubescent within, otherwise glabrous; nectary disk often present at base of ovary, annular or developed on anterior side only. Stamens 4, purple, exserted beyond upper corolla lip; filaments inserted near throat, pubescent; anthers dithecal; anther sacs divaricate, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, 2-carpellate, each carpel longitudinally divided, placentation basal-axile; ovules 1 per ovary lobe; style 1, exserted, arising between lobes, usually cleft, diverging after anther dehiscence, shortly 2-lobed, the lobes subulate; stigmas 2.

Fruit: Nutlets ca. 8 mm long; 1-seeded; drupaceous; black at maturity; margins slightly winged; obliquely attached at base; included within calyx at maturity; exocarp fleshy; obovoid. Seeds with endosperm absent or scanty and oily.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Steep to vertical rocky slopes and windward–facing ridges.

Elevation Range: 975–1,075 m.