Description:
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A perennial herb or shrub up to c. 2 m. high. Branches terete, covered with very appressed scales up to 1·5 mm. long. Leaves opposite or 3-nate; lamina up to 17·5 x 3·8 cm., oblong-lanceolate, round or subcordate at the base, subacute at the apex, crenate-serrate at the margin (each tooth ending in a fringed bristle), coriaceous, concolorous or slightly discolorous (light or dull green above, paler beneath), longitudinally 3(5)-nerved, the longitudinal nerves impressed above, raised beneath as well as the numerous transverse ones and the reticulation; upper face of lamina covered with short conic or pyramidal prominences ornamented by raised white lines converging into a short apical bristle; under face foveolate, ± hairy and with the longitudinal nerves covered by appressed scales similar to the cauline ones but longer; petiole 1–2 cm. long, robust, scaly. Flowers 5-merous, in terminal somewhat lax panicles; bracts 8–9 x 6–7 mm., ovate, obtuse, scaly outside, caducous; pedicels c. 1 mm. long. Receptacle c. 8 x 5 mm., cylindric-campanulate, covered with very short appendages pectinate-setose at the apex. Sepals 8–11 x 3–4 mm., oblong, emarginate or truncate at the apex, purplish, dorsally scaly-setose at the apex; intersepalar segments 2·5 x l·5 mm., oblong, slightly dilated and setose near the apex. Fructiferous receptacle c. 10 x 8 mm., ovoid-cylindric. Capsule c. 8 x 6 mm., setose on the upper half, and with a crown of white fringed-pectinate scales around the insertion of the style. Seeds c. 0·75 mm. long, minutely papillose-tuberculate.
From FZ, Vol 4, Part 0, page 220, (1978) Author: R. and A. Fernandes |