Information

A diœcious shrub, 3 to 10 ft. high, covered with silvery-grey forked hairs; branches numerous, slender (1–1 1/2 lin. thick), elongated, finally leafless and spinescent at the tip, ultimate branchlets shortened, tuberculiform. Leaves scattered on the elongated branches, fascicled on the dwarf shoots (2 1/2–9 lin. long, about 2 lin. broad), very variable in form, narrowly oblong, oblong-lanceolate or obovate, obtuse or emarginate, base acute, tapering into the very short petiole, adpressed hairy on both surfaces. Flowers small, solitary, generally fascicled with the leaves on the dwarf shoots; pedicels slender, about equal to the flowers, bearing a pair of minute linear bracts near the base. Sepals subequal, thinly membranous, silvery-silky on the back, in the male about 1 lin. long, ovate and subobtuse, in the female obovate-spathulate, nearly equal to the corolla, 3 lin. long and nearly as broad; in the fruit rather rigid, spreading, longitudinally 5-nerved and transversely veined. Corolla campanulate, funnel-shaped, 3 1/2 lin. long; lower part of tube sub-globose, upper campanulate; lobes equal in length to the tube, elliptic-ovate, back silky, edges glabrous. Stamens shorter than the corolla, glabrous; filaments filiform, subulate, dilated gradually towards the base; anthers oblong, absent in the female. Disc in male flower thick, 5-lobed; sterile pistil cone-shaped, long-haired; styles as long as the stamens, each ending in a deeply cordate 5-lobed stigma. Disc in female flower small, 5-lobed; ovary subglobose; styles filiform, twice as long as the ovary; stigmas large, exserted, forked, branches irregularly pinnately lobed. Capsule shortly ovoid, 4-valved, 4-seeded.

Information

A diœcious shrub, 3 to 10 ft. high, covered with silvery-grey forked hairs; branches numerous, slender (1–1 1/2 lin. thick), elongated, finally leafless and spinescent at the tip, ultimate branchlets shortened, tuberculiform. Leaves scattered on the elongated branches, fascicled on the dwarf shoots (2 1/2–9 lin. long, about 2 lin. broad), very variable in form, narrowly oblong, oblong-lanceolate or obovate, obtuse or emarginate, base acute, tapering into the very short petiole, adpressed hairy on both surfaces. Flowers small, solitary, generally fascicled with the leaves on the dwarf shoots; pedicels slender, about equal to the flowers, bearing a pair of minute linear bracts near the base. Sepals subequal, thinly membranous, silvery-silky on the back, in the male about 1 lin. long, ovate and subobtuse, in the female obovate-spathulate, nearly equal to the corolla, 3 lin. long and nearly as broad; in the fruit rather rigid, spreading, longitudinally 5-nerved and transversely veined. Corolla campanulate, funnel-shaped, 3 1/2 lin. long; lower part of tube sub-globose, upper campanulate; lobes equal in length to the tube, elliptic-ovate, back silky, edges glabrous. Stamens shorter than the corolla, glabrous; filaments filiform, subulate, dilated gradually towards the base; anthers oblong, absent in the female. Disc in male flower thick, 5-lobed; sterile pistil cone-shaped, long-haired; styles as long as the stamens, each ending in a deeply cordate 5-lobed stigma. Disc in female flower small, 5-lobed; ovary subglobose; styles filiform, twice as long as the ovary; stigmas large, exserted, forked, branches irregularly pinnately lobed. Capsule shortly ovoid, 4-valved, 4-seeded.

Information

A diœcious shrub, 3 to 10 ft. high, covered with silvery-grey forked hairs; branches numerous, slender (1–1 1/2 lin. thick), elongated, finally leafless and spinescent at the tip, ultimate branchlets shortened, tuberculiform. Leaves scattered on the elongated branches, fascicled on the dwarf shoots (2 1/2–9 lin. long, about 2 lin. broad), very variable in form, narrowly oblong, oblong-lanceolate or obovate, obtuse or emarginate, base acute, tapering into the very short petiole, adpressed hairy on both surfaces. Flowers small, solitary, generally fascicled with the leaves on the dwarf shoots; pedicels slender, about equal to the flowers, bearing a pair of minute linear bracts near the base. Sepals subequal, thinly membranous, silvery-silky on the back, in the male about 1 lin. long, ovate and subobtuse, in the female obovate-spathulate, nearly equal to the corolla, 3 lin. long and nearly as broad; in the fruit rather rigid, spreading, longitudinally 5-nerved and transversely veined. Corolla campanulate, funnel-shaped, 3 1/2 lin. long; lower part of tube sub-globose, upper campanulate; lobes equal in length to the tube, elliptic-ovate, back silky, edges glabrous. Stamens shorter than the corolla, glabrous; filaments filiform, subulate, dilated gradually towards the base; anthers oblong, absent in the female. Disc in male flower thick, 5-lobed; sterile pistil cone-shaped, long-haired; styles as long as the stamens, each ending in a deeply cordate 5-lobed stigma. Disc in female flower small, 5-lobed; ovary subglobose; styles filiform, twice as long as the ovary; stigmas large, exserted, forked, branches irregularly pinnately lobed. Capsule shortly ovoid, 4-valved, 4-seeded.