| Original Botanical Description or Link to | Perennial, monoecious herb, creeping to semi-erect,
forming clumps, up to 50 cm tall. Stem brownish-red,
swollen at the nodes, glabrous except for microscopic
glandular hairs, internodes 2–6.7 cm long. Leaves
alternate, excentrically peltate; stipules caducous, ovate
to elliptic, slightly asymmetric, 6‒11 × 3–6 mm, midrib
abaxially prominent, apex shortly cuspidate, cusp up to 4
mm long, margin entire, brownish-red, translucent,
glabrous; petioles (4.5–) 6.6–14 cm long, brownish-red,
terete, glabrescent; lamina 8–20 × 3–11 cm, asymmetric,
ovate to elliptic, apex acuminate, margin irregularly and
distantly dentate or serrate, adaxial surface green and
abaxial surface pale green, glabrous; venation palmatepinnate, primary veins 5–7, actinodromous, secondary
veins craspedodromous. Inflorescences: protogynous;
female inflorescences basal to male inflorescences, 1 or
2-flowered, peduncles 1–3 mm long; bracts ovatelanceolate, 7–8 × 3–4 mm, midrib prominent, mucronate,
mucro 1–2 mm long, pale red; male inflorescences
racemose-cymose (a thyrse) composed of up to 18 partial
inflorescences, each compressed subumbellate with 4–12
flowers, peduncles 0.6–3.5 cm long, greenish-red; bracts
ovate to lanceolate 4–6 × 2 mm, midrib prominent,
projecting up to 1 mm long. Male flowers; pedicels 12–
14 mm, pale green, glabrous; tepals 2, white or white
tinged with pink, 6–11 × 6–12 mm, broadly ovate, base
rounded, apex rounded-retuse, glabrous; androecium of
21–29 stamens, yellow, filaments 0.5–1.1 mm long, fused
at base, unequal, longer in the middle of the androecium,
anthers c. 0.5 mm long, obovate, dehiscing through
unilaterally positioned slits c. 1/2 as long as the anther,
connective not projecting. Female flowers: pedicels 1–4
mm long, greenish-red, glabrous; tepals 5, white or white
tinged pink, unequal, the four larger outer 8–10 × 5–6 mm,
elliptic-lanceolate, the smaller inner one 8–9 × 3–4 mm,
elliptic-lanceolate, glabrous; ovary (excluding wings) 8–
9 × 1.5–2.5 mm, cylindrical, pink or reddish-white,
glabrous, locules 3, placentation axile and bilamellate,
wings 3, rounded at the base, truncate or rounded at the
apex, up to 6 mm at the widest point (apically); style
basally fused, 3-branched, each stylodium bifurcate,
stigmatic region spirally twisted and papillose, the style
and stylodia pale yellow, stigma yellow. Fruits:
peduncles 1.5–2 mm long; pedicels 1–4 mm long,
greenish-red; seed-bearing part ellipsoid, 9–17 × 2.5–5
mm (without wings), wings shape as for ovary, widest
point at the apex, up to 7 mm. Seeds unknown. |
