Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Sparingly branched shrubs or small trees ca. 2–3 m tall.

Stems: Branches conspicuously swollen where clusters of leaves arise, younger ones reddish brown, glabrous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades elliptic–oblanceolate to occasionally elliptic, 15–30 cm long, 5–7.5 cm wide. Apex acute to acuminate. Base attenuate, and then abruptly subtruncate. Surfaces glabrous, yellowish green, membranous to chartaceous. Margins entire. Midrib prominent, lateral veins ca. 16–25 pairs, conspicuous, usually 7–15 mm apart, higher order venation slightly less conspicuous, forming a reticulate pattern, submarginal vein conspicuous and irregular. Petioles 7–15 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers ca. 3–8 in bracteolate fascicles arising below the leaves, pedicels 7–9 mm long, glabrous. Flowers apparently bisexual (perfect). Calyx 4–5(6)-lobed, usually deeply so, the lobes imbricate or valvate in bud, punctate or with secretory lines, lobes ca. 1.2 mm long, margins sparsely ciliate. Corolla of 4–5(6) petals; petals pinkish white, the lobes nearly distinct or connate up to ½ their length, imbricate in bud, narrowly oblanceolate, ca. 3.2–3.5 mm long, punctate, margins ciliate. Anthers ca. 2 mm long, apex with a tuft of hairs. Ovary superior, glabrous, 3–5(6)-carpellate, 1-celled; ovules few in a single row, ovary reduced and sterile or absent in staminate flowers; style very short or absent, terminal; stigma sessile, capitate-angled.

Fruit: Drupes dark purple; depressed–globose; ca. 6–8 mm in diameter. Seeds 1 per fruit; small; dark colored; subglobose; excavated at base.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Bogs and near streams in wet forest.

Elevation Range: 640–850 m.