Information

Suffrutex or small shrub 0.1–3 m tall, sometimes with only leaves and flowers showing above ground; bark greybrown, rough; branchlets purplish, usually lenticellate, later greyish with epidermis sometimes peeling. Leaves coriaceous, oblong- to oblanceolate-elliptic, 6–19(–25) cm long, 1.6–4.5(–7) cm wide, acute to obtuse at the apex, cuneate to rounded at the base, margin densely, evenly and acutely serrulate; lateral veins and tertiary reticulate venation prominent above, less so beneath; petiole 1–3 mm long. Flowers precocious or occurring with leaves, (2–)3–9(–14) in axillary receme-like inflorescences with short rhachis; pedicels 1.3–4 cm long with joint at 2–5 mm from base. Sepals elliptic to narrowly ovate, 1.2–2.2(–2.5) cm long, 0.6–1 cm wide, rounded at the apex, becoming red and attaining 2–3 cm long, 0.8–1.5 cm wide in fruit. Petals bright yellow or orange-yellow, elliptic, obovate or almost round, 1.6–3.2 cm long, 0.9–2.7 cm wide. Anthers (4.5–)7–8 mm long, as long as or twice as long as the filaments, dehiscing by apical pores. Carpels 5(–10); styles free at apex and recurved with capitate stigmas. Drupelets black, oblong-ellipsoid or subcylindrical, 9–13 mm long, 5–9 mm wide, inserted near base. Fig. 1 (p. 13).