Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Erect subshrubs.

Stems: Stems 3–9 dm long, quadrangular, hirsute.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blades ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, 12–24 cm long, (4–)4.5–8.4 cm wide. Apex acuminate. Base broadly cuneate to rounded. Surfaces moderately hirsute (hairs spreading to subappressed), sparsely glandular–dotted; pale on lower surface, membranous, somewhat flaccid. Margins crenate. Petioles 2.6–6.5 cm long, hirsute. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 2 per verticillaster, on short, leafless, congested, lateral branches 4–7(–12) cm long arising in the axils or below lowermost leaves, forming racemose inflorescences, hirsute throughout, rarely with 1 pair of reduced leaves 1–1.5 cm long at base of branch, pedicels 8–10 mm long, each flower subtended by an obovate, ciliate bract 3–5(–8) mm long, in P. floribunda only on short, congested, lateral branches arising in the axils or below the lowermost leaves. Calyx broadly obconical, becoming broadly hemispherical in fruit, 2–5 mm long at anthesis, strongly 10–nerved, hirsute, sparsely so on inner face, many hairs gland–tipped, also glandular–dotted, usually 5-toothed, the teeth usually maroon, linear-lanceolate, 1.2–2.5 mm long, apex attenuate, splitting longitudinally, usually persistent or sometimes only ventral 1/2 persistent. Corolla bilabiate, maroon, pink, or red, white at base, villous especially on upper surface, tube narrowly funnelform, nearly straight, ca. 8–10 mm long, upper lip entire or 2-lobed, flat or concave, ca. 2.5 mm long, lower lip 3-lobed ca. 4–5 mm long, lower lobe broadly ovate to suborbicular, slightly folded to form a groove, margins somewhat undulate, apex emarginate or entire; nectary disk often present at base of ovary, annular or developed on anterior side only. Stamens 4, both pairs of similar length or upper pair slightly longer, ascending the upper corolla lip, included, aligned with the sinuses; filaments inserted near throat, usually pubescent; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits; anther sacs divaricate. Ovary superior, 2-carpellate; ovules 1 per ovary lobe placentation basal-axile; style 1, included, arising between lobes, shortly 2-lobed, the lobes clavate; stigmatic only at apex, 1 lobe often rudimentary; stigmas 2.

Fruit: Nutlets 1-seeded; 3-3.5 mm long; dark green to black; drupaceous; exocarp fleshy; obovoid; margins slightly winged; obliquely attached at the connate base; spreading and exserted from calyx at maturity. Seeds with endosperm absent or scanty and oily.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Known from 4 disjunct areas in mesic to wet forest.

Elevation Range: 430–1,130 m.