Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Scandent vines.

Stems: Stems densely retrorsely strigose, more sparsely so with age.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blades narrowly ovate, 7.5–14 cm long, 2.5–5 cm wide. Apex acute to short-acuminate. Base broadly cuneate to truncate. Surfaces very densely silky strigose, blades thick. Margins serrate. Petioles 1.7–3.5 cm long, densely antrorsely strigose. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 6–10 per verticillaster, in compact, unbranched, terminal racemose inflorescences ca. 10–15 cm long, pedicels 3–10 mm long, densely shaggy villous, bracts narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 10–20 mm long, lowermost pair largest, ca.20–40 mm long, bracteoles of individual flowers conspicuous, linear–deltate, ca. 3–4 mm long. Calyx campanulate, 6–7 mm long, enlarging in fruit, densely antrorsely long–strigose, usually 5-toothed, the teeth deltate, 1–2 mm long, apex acute, slightly thickened, splitting longitudinally, usually persistent or sometimes only ventral 1/2 persistent. Corolla bilabiate, white, tube narrowly funnelform, slightly curved, ca.12 mm long, densely antrorsely strigose throughout, upper lip ca. 5–7 mm long, entire or 2-lobed, flat or concave, lower lip ca. 8–10 mm long, 3-lobed, lateral lobes ovate, slightly asymmetrical, 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, placentation basal-axile; ovules 1 per ovary lobe; style 1, included, arising between lobes, shortly 2-lobed, the lobes clavate; stigmatic only at apex, 1 lobe often rudimentary; stigmas 2.

Fruit: Nutlets ca. 4–5 mm long; 1-seeded; 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: 2n = ca. 66*

Habitat: Apparently uncommon in mesic to wet forest.

Elevation Range: 1,460–1,920 m.