Adenandra gracilis Eckl. & Zeyh.

An erect, slender, very sparsely branched shrublet, 20-40 cm high, with thin, suberect, terete, glabrous branches. Young branches with yellowish cortex, later defoliated, reddish-brown, comparatively smooth. Leaves sparsely to rather densely set, erect to erecto-patent, often loosely imbricated, glabrous; petiole very short (up to c. 0.7 mm); blade relatively thick, elliptic to oblong, 2.5-4.4 x 1.1-2.3 mm, obtuse, more or less involute (thus exposing the convex dorsal face), with 4-15 large but rather inconspicuous glandular dots along the margins, which are slightly thickened and have a roughly glandular crenulate appearance. Uppermost leaves hardly changed in shape, not forming an involucre. Flowers subsessile, solitary or in few-flowered terminal heads. Bracts similar to the uppermost leaves, obovate to spathulate. 2.5-3.2 x 1.1-1.6 mm, obtuse, glabrous, sometimes obtusely carinate, with a few (3-8) comparatively large, marginal glandular dots. Bracteoles attached immediately below the calyx and similar to the calyx segments, reaching to the middle of the latter or slightly below. Calyx 3.5-4.8 mm, divided to 85-90%, glabrous, reddish-brown; segments broadly oblong to elliptic, 3.1-4.0 x 1.6-2.2 mm, obtuse, obtusely carinate, central part thickened and appearing roughly muricate from 6-14 rather large glands which are slightly raised above the surface (usually one row on each side of the mid-vein); margins thin, sub-membranous, sometimes ciliate. Petals pinkish outside, white inside, glabrous, with rather conspicuous veins, obovate, cuneate at the base (i.e., claw very gradually widening as it merges into the limb), 6.5-8.3 x 3.8-5.4 mm, obtuse or apiculate. Staminodes erect, slender, from a subulate base uniformly broad, 1.9-2.5 mm long, upper part slightly incurved, glabrous, reddish, apically widening into a globose gland 0.2-0.3 mm across. Stamens: filaments 0.6-1.0 mm long and 0.3-0.4 mm broad at the base, subulate, glabrous, slightly incurved, reddish; anthers ovoid to broadly ovoid, dorsifixed, hardly versatile, 0.6-1.0 x 0.4-0.6 mm, glabrous, brown, tipped by a relatively large, stipitate, capitate gland 0.2-0.3 mm across. Ovary globose, 0.8-1.2 mm across, smooth, glabrous; style erect, very short (c. 0.5 mm): stigma capitate, brownish. Mature capsule about twice as long as the calyx, the carpels free for most of their length, obtuse, glabrous, transversely rugose, brownish-green. Seeds ovoid, 2.2-3.1 x 1.6-2.0 mm.