Clethra arfakana
Content
Description
Shrub or erect treelet, 2-3 m, much branched.
Branchlets slender, tips rusty-tomentellous.
Leaves obovate-oblong or -elliptic, apex shortly acutely acuminate, base cuneate, slightly inequilateral, subcoriaceous to firmly chartaceous, flush reddish, younger and mature ones dark green and glabrous above, whitish greyish below, i.e. except the sparsely hairy or subglabrous midrib and nerves covered by a short tomentum of minute stellate hairs, very tardily glabrescent, (sub)entire or shallowly dentate, (2-)3-4.5 by (1-)1.3-2 cm, more deeply dentate and up to 7.5 by 3 cm in not flowering new shoots, nerves in 10-12 pairs, ± straight from the midrib, curved upwards, slightly prominent beneath;
Petals obovate-spathulate, sometimes coherent at the base, glabrous, white, shortly erose-fimbriate all along the edge, (3.5-)4(-5) by 2-2.5 mm.
Ovary almost hirsute;
Capsule subglobose, 2.5-3 mm ø.
Seeds oval to subtrigonous, c. 1 mm.