Lycianthes arrazolensis

Description. Shrub, 0.9 - 5 m tall, sometimes vining or arching through neighboring vegetation. Indument of light yellow (sometimes appearing tan or off-white), uniseriate, multicellular, simple, eglandular, spreading or appressed-ascending trichomes 0.1 - 1.5 (1.75) mm long, sometimes the stems with very small appressed trichomes between longer spreading trichomes. Stems green to violet when young (drying tan) with maroon / purple lenticular vertical striations (drying blackish), sparsely to densely pubescent, not much compressed when dried in a plant press, becoming light brown and woody with age; upper sympodial branching points monochasial or dichasial. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia usually paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 7.5 - 22 x (1.8) 3 - 9 (11) cm, the smaller ones with blades (1) 3 - 9 (12.5) x (0.4) 1.2 - 5.7 (7) cm, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades ovate, elliptic, or obovate (rarely lanceolate), chartaceous, glabrous to densely pubescent, the trichomes usually densely spreading outward (towards the margins) along the abaxial veins, especially at the base of the main vein, the base cuneate to attenuate, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, usually irregularly undulate, the apex acuminate, the petiole 0.2 - 3 cm long, sometimes absent, the larger leaf blades with 5 - 7 primary veins on each side of the midvein. Flowers solitary or in groups of 2 - 10 (19), axillary, oriented horizontally; peduncles absent; pedicels 4 - 15 mm long and erect in flower, 6 - 16 (21) mm long and erect in fruit, sparsely to densely pubescent; calyx (1) 1.5 - 2.5 (3) mm long, 2 - 3 (3.5) mm in diameter, obconic to campanulate, sparsely to densely pubescent (sometimes nearly glabrous in Oaxaca), the margin truncate, with 10 spreading, linear appendages 0.5 - 2.5 mm long (atypically to 5 mm in low elevation Guerrero populations) emerging 0.5 - 1 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, bowl-shaped to rotate, 1 - 2 mm long, 4 - 7 mm in diameter, the appendages to 2.5 (4) mm long (probably longer in Guerrero); corolla 0.6 - 1.2 (1.6) cm long, rotate to campanulate in orientation, mostly entire in outline (with shallow notches), with abundant interpetalar tissue, white to pale violet, adaxially sometimes with purple stripes along the major veins of the lobes or with three green spots located between the short stamens, glabrous, the abaxial side of the lobes green, glabrous to sparsely puberulent near the veins; stamens unequal, straight, the four short filaments 0.5 - 2 mm long, the one long filament (1.25) 3 - 4 (5) mm long, glabrous, the anthers 2.5 - 4 (4.5) mm long, lanceolate, free of one another, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores ovate, the pores of the longest stamen dehiscing toward the style, the pores of the shorter stamens usually dehiscing away from the style (sometimes dehiscing distally, rarely inward), not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style (5) 6.5 - 9 (10) mm long, linear, straight to curved upward at the tip, glabrous, the stigma oblong, decurrent down two sides. Fruit a berry, 5 - 10 (11) mm long, 5 - 10 (11) mm in diameter, globose, orange to red at maturity, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds (3) 10 - 108 per fruit, 1.2 - 2.5 (3) x 1 - 2.5 mm, flattened, elliptic, irregularly triangular, or oval in outline, not obviously notched (if slightly indented, indentation is usually less than 0.3 mm), yellow-orange, surface reticulum rough with indistinct serpentine pattern with shallow luminae.