Notes:
This species is characterized by its dark brown drying color, its small leaves that are generally oblanceolate or obovate, its small bilobed stipules, its ferrugineous-hirtellous stems, its solitary or rarely paired, subsessile, small, 5-merous flowers, and its red fruits. There are several similar Psychotria species with some of the same characters but not all of these in this combination. Several specimens from Ranomafana and Andohahela Parks are provisionally included in the circumscription of this species: these differ from the type and most of their specimens in their relatively smaller, narrower, and rather cuneate leaves that angled at the apex (rather than generally rounded) and their fruits with short peduncles, 2--3 mm long. No flowers have been seen of this form. This form is similar also to Psychotria ambohimitombensis in its shortly pedunculate fruits, but differs from this last species in the distinctive shape and smaller size of the leaves (vs. obovate and rounded in Psychotria ambohimitombensis) and its solitary flowers. In general Psychotria ambohimitombensis and Psychotria haplantha are similar, and if there is variation in their populations in how many flowers are produced, whether the flowers are sessile or pedunculate, and the length of the calyx limb, then the separation of these two species needs reevaluation.
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