Lasianthus laoticus

Description: — Shrub, to 1 m high. Current year twig 2 – 3 mm in diam., flattened, appressed brownish hairy, glabrescent; internode 1.3 – 4.2 cm. Leaves opposite, petiolate; petiole 1 – 3 mm long, densely appressed hairy; blade ovate-oblong, 3.5 – 13 × 1.4 – 4.1 cm, subcoriaceous, adaxially dark yellow green, glossy, glabrous, abaxially gray green, densely hairy on midrib to tertiary veins, apex acuminate to aristate, tip pointed, 0.8 – 1.4 mm long, base cordate, margin finely undulate, midrib sunken adaxially, prominent abaxially, secondary veins 8 – 11 pairs, prominent abaxially, tertiary veins reticulate. Stipules triangular, ca. 1.8 mm long, brownish hairy outside, especially denser near margin and apex. Inflorescence axillary, cymose, solitary to 7 - flowered; peduncle 1.3 – 3 cm long, pubescent, glabrescent; bract linear, ca. 2.2 mm long, pubescent. Flowers subsessile to short-stalked; pedicels up to 2.2 mm long; calyx obconical, sparsely pubescent, tube ca. 2 mm long, lobes 4, triangular, ca. 1 mm long; corolla white with a faint tinge of yellow, cylindrical-campanulate, tube 6 – 9 mm long, outside glabrous, inside villous in upper 1 / 2, lobes triangular, ca. 3 mm long, apex apiculate, outside glabrous, inside villous, stamens 4, exerted from corolla, filaments basally connate to corolla, free part ca. 1.2 mm long, glabrous, anthers ca. 2.2 mm long, ciliolate; ovary 4 - locular, style ca. 4 mm long, glabrous, stigma 4 - lobed, ca. 0.9 mm long. Fruits drupaceous, subglobose or ovoid, 5 – 6 mm long, ca. 5 mm in diam., crowned by the persistent calyx, blackish brown when ripe, sparsely appressed hairy on the surface; the persistent calyx lobes 4, linear to linear-lanceolate, ca. 1 mm long, apex acute, hirsute; pyrenes 4, grooved on the dorsal curved face, obovoid, ca. 4 mm long, 2 mm wide. Additional specimen examined: — Champasak Province, Dong Hua Sao National Protected Area, 14 ° 53 ′ 44.73 ″ N, 106 ° 01 ′ 2.36 ″ E, 158 m elev., 13 December 2018, S. Tagane et al. L 2222 [young infl.] (FOF, KAG 128322).