A large, woody liana up to 25 m long, climbing with hooks; young branches 4-angular, pubescent. Leaves opposite; stipules linear, distinctly bifid, pubescent, with colleters inside; petiole short; blade elliptical-lanceolate to elliptical, 6—10 cm x 2.5—3.5 cm, rounded at base, long acuminate to caudate at apex, hairy on both sides, with domatia in the axils of secondary veins below. Inflorescence a terminal, globose head, 1—2 cm in diameter; receptacle hairy, with interfloral bracteoles; flowers sessile, 5-merous; calyx with a short tube and short lobes, silky; corolla salver-shaped, green to yellow, tube 5—7.5 mm long, pubescent outside, lobes short; stamens inserted on the corolla throat, filaments very short; ovary inferior, 2-locular, each locule with a thick black placenta and many ovules, style exserted, with a club-shaped stigma. Fruit a dry capsule, splitting loculicidally but remaining intact below the calyx remnants, about 4 mm x 2 mm. Seed with a long wing at both ends, lower wing deeply bifid. |
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