B. chiasmogyna

Culture

Endangered Status

VU D2

Original Botanical Description or Link to

Erect softly hairy much branching herb to c.50 cm high. Stem woody at base, sometimes rooting where nodes touch substrate, densely hairy, internodes 5–13 cm. Stipules c.10 6 7 mm with a filiform extension at the tip, hairy, semi-persistent. Petioles 2–6 cm long, densely hairy. Leaves very asymmetric, up to 7–17 cm long from base to tip and 3–6 cm wide, midrib 5–13 cm, ovate–lanceolate, venation pinnate–palmate, covered with colourless hairs, margin scalloped and irregularly dentate with a fringe of short hairs, shallowly cordate at the base, pale green. Inflorescence bisexual, terminal, protogynous, female flowers occasionally borne separately; bracts ovate, c.3 mm long, fimbriate. Male flowers borne in monochasial cymes of c.14 flowers; tepals 2, suborbicular, c.8 6 9 mm, base cordate becoming truncate at maturity, outer surface with a few short colourless hairs, margin slightly fimbriate, white; stamens 45–50, yellow, anthers c.0.75 mm long, dehiscing through short slits near the tip, filaments the same length, slightly fused at the base. Female flowers borne in pairs; pedicel c.3 mm long; tepals 4, equal, sub-rhomboid, denticulate, white, c.15 6 11 mm; styles 3, twice spirally twisted, yellow, deciduous; ovary 10 6 14 mm with 3 equal wings, truncate across the apex, scattered with colourless hairs, pale green or pink, placentation axile, placentae bifid, wings rounded at the base and acute at the tip. Fruit c.12 6 16 mm, drying pale brown, dehiscent, capsule oval. Seeds barrel shaped, c.0.3 mm long, collar cells c.2/3 the length of the seed.