Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrub.

Stems: Stems woody, unbranched, 0.3–0.6 m long, unarmed, muricate or aculeate.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades lanceolate to oblanceolate, blades 6–13 cm long, 1.5–2 cm wide. Apex subacute to acuminate. Upper surfaces glabrous; lower surfaces pubescent on the veins. Margins callose–crenulate, strongly revolute. Petioles 0.6–1.5 cm long, pubescent to muricate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescences 5–20–flowered, peduncles 5–15 mm long, pedicels 5–10 mm long; hypanthium 4–7 mm long, sparsely pubescent. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Calyx 5-lobed, lobes oblong to lanceolate, 3–10 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, distinct or rarely connate, apex obtuse, acute, or acuminate; tube adnate to ovary. Corolla zygomorphic, white, the lobes suffused with pale violet on inner surface, 3–6 cm long, glabrous, the tube suberect to strongly arcuate, dorsally cleft to about the middle, the lobes connate, spreading, rarely erect or all 5 downcurved in the same plane. Stamens 5, alternate with corolla lobes, connate, staminal column glabrous or sparsely pubescent; anthers dark purple, glabrous, with apical tufts of white hairs on the lower 2 or rarely all 5, the lower 2 with apical tufts of white hairs, dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits, coherent but separating after anthesis or connate and forming a tube into which pollen is shed; filaments distinct or connate above, attached to the epigynous nectary disk or to base of corolla, rarely adnate to corolla tube. 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 unknown. Seeds numerous; small; brown to black; smooth; shiny; 0.2–0.5(–2) mm long; with a straight; short to spatulate dicotyledonous embryo embedded in oily endosperm.

Ploidy: 2n = 28

Habitat: Endemic to windy cloud swept wet forest.

Elevation Range: