Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Laxly branched subshrubs 0.5–2 m tall.

Stems: Young branches subquadrate, densely covered with appressed to antrorsely spreading, smooth hairs.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, decussate. Blades narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, 3.5–11.5 cm long, 1–3 cm wide. Apex acute to acuminate. Base acute. Surfaces strigose, the hairs on upper surfaces adnate part of their length to the leaf surface. Margins subentire. (3–)5(–7)-veined with the lateral primary veins confluent for 1–5 mm at base of blade. Petioles 3–13 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in cymes, inflorescences 5–17 cm long (incl. peduncle), bracts and bracteoles linear-lanceolate, 1–5 mm long, 0.5–2 mm wide, bracteoles not enclosing nor concealing floral buds, deciduous. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Hypanthium strigose; fruiting hypanthium 4–4.5 mm long, 3–4 mm wide. Calyx lobes spreading or recurved, linear–subulate, 2.5–3.5 mm long, 1 mm wide at base, persistent on fruiting hypanthium, ciliate. Corolla of 5 petals, obovate, white, 5–7 mm long, 2.5–4 mm wide. Stamens all nearly similar, twice as many as petals; anthers linear–subulate, with a ventrally inclined pore, connective prolonged below anther sacs and modified ventrally into a 2-lobed appendage at filament insertion; anthers 1.5–2 mm long, with prolonged connective and appendage collectively ca. 0.25 mm long; filaments glabrous. Ovary inferior, distinct, 4–5-celled, pubescent at the apex; ovules numerous, placentation axile; style simple; stigma terminal.

Fruit: Capsules fully enclosed by the hypanthium. Seeds cochleate; minutely tuberculate; 0.25–0.5 mm long; endosperm absent.

Ploidy: 2n = 18

Habitat:

Elevation Range: