Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs or trees 0.6–6 m tall.

Stems: Stems sparingly branched, unarmed or muricate.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades narrowly oblong to oblanceolate, blades 20–38 cm long, 4–8 cm wide. Apex acute. Base cuneate. Surfaces glabrous or muricate. Margins callose–denticulate and shallowly lobed. Petioles 1.5–3.5 cm long, pubescent. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescences 5–6–flowered, pubescent, peduncles 10–40 mm long, pedicels 7–22 mm long. Flowers bisexual (perfect); hypanthium ovoid to obconical, 5–5 mm long, sparsely pubescent. Calyx lobes triangular, 2–4 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, apex acuminate. Corolla yellowish white or purple, 35–50 mm long, 5–6 mm wide, sparsely pubescent, the tube arcuate, the lobes spreading, 1⁄2–¾ as long as the tube. Stamens 5, alternate with corolla lobes, connate; staminal column glabrous; anthers glabrous, the lower 2 with apical tufts of white hairs. Ovary inferior, 2-celled; ovule placentation axile; stigma 2-lobed, wet or dry, appressed and nonreceptive as the style grows through the anther tube, pushing out the pollen, after which the stigmas spread apart and become receptive.

Fruit: Berries orange; globose. Seeds numerous.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Occurring in mesic to wet forest; Kona coast and Ka'u District; Hawai'i.

Elevation Range: 1,400–1,950 m.