Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Trees to 5–6 m tall.

Stems: Branches reddish brown, stout, glabrous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades oblanceolate to elliptic–oblanceolate, (6.3–)9–15(–19) cm long, (2.8–)4–5.3(–6) cm wide. Apex obtuse to rounded, ± emarginate. Base cuneate to attenuate, and then usually subtruncate, basal margins recurved near juncture of petiole. Surfaces glabrous, inconspicuously punctate, green to yellowish green, clustered at the tips of the branches, coriaceous. Margins entire and slightly revolute. Midrib prominent, lateral veins ca. 25–30 pairs, conspicuous, irregular, ca. 2–4 mm apart, reticulate higher order venation moderately prominent, more so upon drying, submarginal vein present, ca. 0.3–0.5 mm from margin. Petioles (2–)5–8 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 5–10 in bracteolate fascicles arising on usually stout woody knobs below the leaves. Flowers possibly bisexual (perfect); pedicels 5–10 mm long, glabrous. Calyx 4–5(6)-lobed, usually deeply so, the lobes imbricate or valvate in bud, punctate or with secretory lines, lobes ca. 1.2 mm long, margins ciliate. Corolla of 4–5(6) petals; petals oblanceolate, the lobes nearly distinct or connate up to ½ their length, imbricate in bud, 3.5–4 mm long, with secretory streaks. Anthers ca. 2.2 mm long, with a tuft of hairs at apex. Ovary superior, 3–5(6)-carpellate, 1-celled; 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 purplish black; ca. 8 mm in diameter. Seeds 1 per fruit; small; dark colored; subglobose; excavated at base.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Mesic to wet forest.

Elevation Range: 360–1,310 m.