Description
Scandent shrubs: with long, slender and sparsely branched shoots; branches basitonic, in axils of cataphylls, pseudo-verticillate; twigs terete, 2–3 mm diam.; epidermis brownish, barely visible due to indument cover; terminal bud plump, ca. 4 X 5 mm; cataphylls persisting on current flush (and for at least three flushes), up to 6 mm long; indument pubescent, persisting for at least two flushes, the hairs dense, up to 1.2 mm long, straight, erect, reddish. Leaves: (pseudo-verticellate at flush apex); petioles pulvinate, 0.4–0.7 cm X 2–3.2 mm, terete; blades coriaceous, flat to bullate, narrowly elliptic, (9–)13–19(–28) X (4–)6–9 cm; base acute to obtuse, 50–110°; apex obtuse, 50–110°, ultimately acuminate for up to 1.5(–2.4) cm; margin minutely recurved; primary vein above slightly raised and rounded, below raised and longitudinally furrowed; secondary veins (7–)8–11(–12) pairs, indistinguishable from tertiary veins at base and apex of lamina, equidistant, brochidodromous, above and below slightly raised to inconspicuous, diverging at 60–70°, straight, the angle uniform along blade length; tertiary veins above and below inconspicuous to slightly raised, random-reticulate; higher order veins above and below inconspicuous; surface above olive-green to brown, below brown; indument above absent, below tomentose to puberulous or glabrous, the hairs sparse, up to 0.5 mm long, straight, erect, reddish-brown to yellowish-brown, persisting for at least two flushes. Staminate inflorescences: in axils of foliage leaves of current flush or previous flushes, along whole length of flush (in axils of cataphylls), pendulous, peduncles 1–10 cm long, the hypopodia up to 3 cm X 1–1.8 mm, branch orders 2(–3), the second-order branches 5–11, dispersed, lowest branch up to 0.2 cm long, color and indument of all axes as on twigs; bracts persistent, up to 4 mm long, adaxially glabrous; bracteoles persistent, up to 3 mm long, adaxially glabrous. Staminate flowers: pedicels ca. 1.5 X 1.1 mm, the diameter even throughout; receptacle flat, ca. 0.8 X 3.3 mm; tepals chartaceous, ovate, ca. X 5 3.5 mm (inner whorl slightly smaller), at anthesis spreading, reddish-brown, adaxially glabrous; stamens of whorls I and II, the anthers sessile, chubby, trapezoid, ca. 2 X 2.4 mm (whorl II slightly smaller), glabrous, the locelli 4, apical, in a shallow arch, introrse, the glands absent; whorl III columnar, ca. 2 X 1.2 mm, glabrous, the locelli 4, the upper pair latrorse, the lower pair extrorse, the glands often fused to adjacent glands and stamens of outer whorls, forming a continuous ring, ca. 1.2 mm diam.; whorl IV absent; all stamens reddish; pistillode absent (minute, linear, ca. 0.3 mm long, hairy). Pistillate flowers unknown. Fruits: pedicels up to 13 X 3 mm, gradually enlarging to form the cupule; cupule hemispherical, up to 12 X 14 mm, smooth (chartaceous), the margin undulate, tepals persisting; berry elliptic, up to 12 X 15 mm.
