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Taxonomy
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Plant Description
This plant is a soft-wooded, evergreen, perennial shrub. It has one or a few stems, fewbranches, and relatively few leaves, mostly concentrated near the growing tip. The bark is corky, furrowed, and light gray. A copious whitesap flows whenever stems or leaves are cut. It has a very deep, stout taproot with few or no near-surface lateral roots.The opposite leaves are oblong-obovate to nearly orbicular, short-pointed to bluntat the apex and have very short petioles below a nearly clasping, heart-shaped base. The leaf bladesare light to dark green with nearly white veins. They are 7 to 18 cm long and 5 to 13 cm broad,slightly leathery, and have a fine coat of soft hairs that rub off. The flower clusters are umbelliformcymes that grow at or near the ends of twigs. The flowers are red-colored shallowly campanulate with five sepals that are 4 to 5 mm long, fleshy. The fruits are inflated, obliquely ovoid follicles that split and invert when mature to release flat, brown seeds with a tuft of white hairs at one end.
*Description source: Not verified.