Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Few to moderately branched small trees 2–3(–4) m tall.

Stems: Branches brown, the young ones green, glabrous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades elliptic, (12–)14–24 cm long, 6–9 cm wide. Apex recurved, obtuse, slightly emarginate. Base cuneate, basal margins recurved and subauriculate, at the juncture of the petiole the margin dark purple and perhaps glandular. Surfaces glabrous, purplish punctate, yellowish green and somewhat chlorotic, clustered toward the tips of the branches, coriaceous. Margins entire and slightly revolute. Midrib prominent, yellow, lateral veins ca. 16 pairs, conspicuous, usually ca. 6–10 mm apart, higher order venation reticulate, but less conspicuous than lateral veins, becoming more conspicuous upon drying, submarginal vein present, close to the margin. Petioles 2–6 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 4–10 in bracteolate fascicles arising on short woody knobs below the leaves, pedicels 6–13 mm long. Flowers apparently unisexual (and the plants dioecious). Calyx green, 4–5(6)-lobed, usually deeply so, the lobes imbricate or valvate in bud, punctate or with secretory lines, the lobes ca. 1 mm long, margins whitish ciliate, persistent. Corolla of 4–5(6) petals; petals green, the lobes nearly distinct or connate up to ½ their length, imbricate in bud, oblong–lanceolate, ca. 3.5–4 mm long, usually sparsely glandular puberulent toward the base on the inner surface, margins white ciliate. Anthers ca. 1.7 mm long, apex with a tuft of hairs, those of pistillate flowers sterile; filaments purple. Ovary superior, 3–5(6)-carpellate, 1-celled, sparsely glandular puberulent; ovules few in a single row, ovary reduced and sterile or absent in staminate flowers; style very short or absent, terminal; stigma capitate-angled.

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

Ploidy:

Habitat: Wet forests.

Elevation Range: 700–855 m.