Information

Shrub c. 5 m. tall (in Tanganyika up to 13 m. tall) with the young branches brownish-pubescent, later glabrescent and purple-brown. Leaf-lamina 5–14 x 3.5–7.5 cm., obovate or obovate-oblong, apex acute, shortly acuminate or obtuse, base rounded, margin coarsely serrate-dentate, the teeth subspinose, sparsely pilose above, densely so below, some of the hairs stellate; lateral nerves in c. 8 pairs, prominent below, veins laxly reticulate, slightly raised below; petiole pubescent, c. 2 cm. long. Flowers in 3-many-flowered, axillary racemes; peduncle up to 4 cm. long in fruit, densely yellowish-pubescent; pedicels similar, up to 2–5 cm. long; bracts 2 mm. long, pubescent, lanceolate, very caducous. Sepals 10 x 7.5 mm., obovate, rounded at the apex, very concave, densely golden-pilose outside. Petals c. 10, 7 x 5 mm. (probably not fully developed), obovate-elliptic, rounded at the apex, densely pilose outside. Stamens numerous; filaments 2–3 mm. long, pilose; anthers linear, 3.5 mm. long, pilose. Ovary ovoid, densely pilose; style simple, up to 8 mm. long, slender, pilose except towards the narrow apex. Fruit a globose capsule c. 2 cm. in diam. (including bristles), covered with pilose bristles swollen at the base. Seeds 1–3, c. 7 x 4.5 mm., irregularly compressed, with a smooth, sparsely pilose testa.