Information

Shrub c. 2 m. tall or sometimes a tree up to 12 m. tall, glabrous in all parts (except for the corolla and seeds); bark greyish. Leaf-lamina up to 16 × 18 cm., chartaceous, very broadly cordate-ovate, obtuse at the apex, margin undulate or entire, 7-nerved from the base; petiole up to 30 cm. long. Flowers salmon-coloured, in axillary racemes c. 12 cm. long borne near the ends of the branches and appearing before the leaves; pedicels 3–4 mm. long, articulated near the apex. Calyx up to 2 × 0·5–0·8 cm., elongate-campanulate, slightly curved, slightly swollen and truncate at the base, glabrous outside, villous at the base within, pubescent above; lobes 2–3 mm. long, triangular, acute, erect or reflexed. Male flowers: androphore up to 2·6 cm. long, pubescent except on the exserted portion. Female flowers: ovary ovoid, glabrous; gynophore c. 7 mm. long, densely pubescent except near the apex; stigma-lobes recurved, subsessile. Fruiting carpels 5·5 × 2 cm., on an elongated gynophore up to 3 cm. long, elliptic, purplish, membranaceous, glabrous, with basal stipes up to 1 cm. long. Seeds 1–2, c. 0·7 cm. in diam., globose, pubescent.