Asystasia venui

Description: — Erect or decumbent herbs, 30 − 60 cm high; stem purplish red, branched, quadrangular, sulcate, ribbed after drying, rooting at nodes on lower portion, pubescent when young, then glabrescent when old except for nodes. Leaves opposite, decussate, petiolate or uppermost pair sessile; petioles (0 −) 0.5 − 8 cm long, sulcate, pubescent; lamina elliptic-ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, uppermost pair ovate to broadly ovate, smaller in size, 1.4 − 10 × 0.9 − 4.4 cm, chartaceous, base unequal, rounded, subcordate, attenuate, or decurrent onto petiole when young, margin entire, apex shortly acuminate, pubescent and green above, tuberculate, glabrous and whitish beneath, veins camptodromous, midvein prominent, impressed above, prominent below, pubescent, lateral veins 5 − 7 pairs, otherwise same as mid vein. Inflorescences terminal, condensed racemes, 1 – 4 cm long, 4 − 12 - flowered, pubescent. Flowers ca. 2 cm across; pedicels slender, 1 − 1.2 cm long, pubescent. Bracts triangular, 1.2 – 1.5 mm long, apex acuminate, margin ciliate persistent; bracteoles ovate-lanceolate, 0.5 – 0.7 mm long, apex acute, margin ciliate, persistent. Calyx 5 - lobed, pubescent and glandular-hairy outside, glabrous inside; tube 1 – 1.5 mm long; lobes linear-lanceolate, 3 − 3.5 mm long, apex acute. Corolla infundibuliform, ventricose, white, with a light violet-purple blotch on the middle lobe of lower lip, glandular-hairy outside, glabrous inside; tube 2 – 2.3 cm long, base cylindrical for 1.5 – 1.7 cm long, throat 5 – 6 mm long; lobes 5, elliptic-ovate, 5 − 7 × 4 – 4.5 mm, apex obtuse. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted at base of throat, slightly exserted; filaments white, slender, shorter pair 5 − 5.5 mm long, longer pair 8 − 8.5 mm long, connate at the base in pairs, glabrous; anthers white with a vertical violet-black band on the sides, oblong, 1.2 – 1.5 cm long, spurred at base, connective beyond the anther cells, glabrous. Ovary green, oblong or columnar, compressed, 1.2 − 1.5 mm long, papillose, basally surrounded by fleshy, dull white, nectariferous disc, 2 - celled; ovules 2 in each cell; style white, filiform, 2.4 – 2.6 cm long, glabrous; stigma shortly 2 - lobed, smooth. Capsules green, clavate, compressed, 1.4 – 2.2 cm long, dehiscent, densely glandular hairy. Seeds 4, suborbicular, flattened, ca. 3 mm across, tuberculate, rugose, dentate along margins, borne on ca. 2 mm long, hook-like retinacula.