Small rhizomatous shrublets with virgate, grooved branches, up to 1 m tall (rarely someÂwhat taller); wood yellow below grey-brown peeling bark. Leaves deciduous, erect, close together, alternate, narrowly obovate, c. 8 cm long, 2 cm broad, usually obtuse above, apicu-late, attenuate towards the base, forming a short petiole, margin closely and shallowly serrulate with the teeth bearing ovoid glands, firm, shiny, the lateral veins curved upwards along margin; stipules deeply dissected into subulate segÂments, striate, intrapetiolar, persisting on first year shoots. Flowers in short, axillary, sessile (1) 3-6-flowered fascicles; the bracts resembÂling the stipules; pedicels c. 8 mm long at anthesis, somewhat longer in fruit, articulated at the base. Sepals narrowly oblong, c. 5 mm at anthesis, up to 1 cm in fruit, pink or red, spreading or reflexed. Petals narrowly obovate, somewhat longer than sepals, white or pinkish, reflexed at anthesis. Stamens about 20; anthers opening by longitudinal slits. Carpels 5, rounded, inserted basally on the torus; style terete, stigma apical, small. Fig. 3.
