Besleria insolita
Content
Description
Terrestrial herb, subshrub or shrub, 0.5-2.5(-3) m tall. Stem sappy, erect, apically strigose, glabrescent below. Leaves equal to subequal in a pair; petiole 2.5-11.5 cm long, strigillose; blade papyraceous when dry, elliptic to oblong, 9.5-30 x 4-13 cm, margin serrate to dentate towards apex, apex shortly acuminate, base cuneate, above sparsely strigose, below strigillose especially along midrib and veins. Flowers fasciculate, in 1-6-flowered, epedunculate inflorescences; pedicel (0.5-)1-1.5(-2) cm long, hirto-puberulous. Calyx fusiform-cylindric, yellow, lobes connate about 2/3 their length, tube 0.7-1.5 cm long, free portion of lobes erect, equal, lanceolate, 0.3-0.6 x 0.1-0.2 cm, margin entire, apex mucronate-bifid, outside hirto-puberulous, inside glabrous; corolla erect in calyx, cream to pale yellow or white, 1.6-2 cm long, tube cylindric, 1.2-2 cm long, base not spurred, 0.3-0.4 cm wide, middle not ventricose, throat slightly constricted, 0.3-0.4 cm wide, outside glabrous, inside with a ring of glandular hairs in throat, limb 0.6-1 cm wide, lobes subequal, erect to recurved, orbicular to ovoid, 0.3 x 0.2 cm wide, margin entire; stamens included, inserted on corolla tube at 0.4-0.5 cm above base; ovary ovoid, 0.5 x 0.4 cm, glabrous, style 0.7-0.9 cm long, glabrous, stigma 2-lobed. Mature berry red or rarely orange, subglobose, 0.7-1 x 0.6-0.8 cm.