Description ⁴

Lianas or climbing shrubs, to 25 m tall. Branchlets dark brown, terete, glabrous or sparsely pubescent when young. Leaves odd-pinnate, rarely 1-foliolate; petiole, rachis, and petiolules glabrous; leaflets 1–3-paired, usually 1-paired; leaflet blade ovate or elliptic to lanceolate, 3–12 × 2–5 cm, (terminal one ovate or long elliptic and larger), papery, glabrous and smooth on both surfaces, lateral veins 5–10-paired, jointed near margin, midvein and reticulate veins prominent abaxially, base broadly cuneate to rounded, equilateral or slightly oblique, margin entire, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Inflorescences axillary or pseudoterminal, laxly paniculate or subracemose with 1–6 axes, 3–9 cm, many flowered, central one much longer than others; rachis and pedicels glabrous. Flowers ca. 1 cm in diam., fragrant. Sepals ovate, 2–3 × 1.5–2 mm, margin ciliate at apex. Petals white or yellow, long elliptic, 4–6 × 1–1.5 mm, glabrous, longitudinally striate. Stamens 2–6 mm. Carpels free, ca. 4 mm, glabrous. Follicle dark green, turning black when dry, obliquely ellipsoid, slightly curved, 1.5–2.5 × 0.7–1.5 cm, longitudinally striate, dehiscing along adaxial suture, with persistent calyx, apex acute. Seed red, ellipsoid, 1.5–2 × 0.6–1 cm, base covered by membranous aril. Fl. Apr–Oct, fr. May–Mar of following year.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) loupok, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/loupok/14324983864/
2. (c) loupok, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/loupok/11148867504/
3. (c) loupok, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/loupok/11148839946/
4. (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/4969591

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