Accara elegans

Systematic Botany, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1990), pp. 221-225

Accara elegans (DC.) Landrum:

Shrub 1-2 m high, glabrous or essentially so except for pubescent to puberulent petals, inner surfaces of calyx-lobes, and young vegetative buds; hairs whitish, simple, to ca. 0.5 mm long; young twigs 4-angled, reddish-brown to yellowish-brown, the older twigs grayish, the bark cracking in a reticulate pattern to reveal reddish-brown inner bark. Leaves more or less crowded towards the tips of twigs, elliptic, narrowly elliptic to suboblanceolate, 2.3-4 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, 1.8-4.6 times as long as wide; apex and base acute to acuminate; petiole 0-2 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide; midvein impressed above, prominent below; lateral veins scarcely visible or 5-7 faint pairs leaving the midvein at an angle of ca. 45°, nearly straight, connecting to a shallowly arching marginal vein that nearly parallels the margin; blades stiffly coriaceous, drying reddish-brown to olive-green above, lighter below. Peduncles uniflorous, 1.5-3 cm long, ca. 1 mm wide; bracteoles narrowly triangular, 2-3.5 mm long; calyx closed in bud, tearing between 4-lobes at anthesis, the lobes glabrous without, pubescent within, sealed along their edges but evident in the bud, after anthesis concave-triangular, hood-like, 3-4 mm long, ca. 4 mm wide, the tears between the lobes entering the hypanthial tube; petals 4, white, obovate to suborbicular, ca. 8 mm long, ca. 5 mm wide, densely pubescent without, glabrous to densely pubescent within; hypanthium campanulate, 3-4 mm long, glabrous or with scattered hairs; disk ca. 3 mm across, puberulent; stamens ca. 200, 4-6 mm long; anthers ca. 0.5 mm long, with 1 terminal gland; style ca. 7 mm long; ovary 4-locular; ovules 25-28, 2-4-seriate on a bilamellate placenta. Fruit subglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam.; seeds ca. 40, ca. 3 mm long, the seed coat shiny, 1 cell thick in outer rim; embryo oily, C-shaped, 2-3 mm long, the cotyledons about the length.