Perennial herb or subshrub 15-120 cm tall, erect or decumbent, often rooting at lower nodes; stems glabrous or minutely puberulous; woody stems with pale grey or sandy bark. Axillary spines small, 4-rayed, stalk to 1 mm long, longest ray 2-7 mm long. Leaves elliptic(-obovate), 4.8-10.5 x 1.6-4.7 cm, base cuneate-attenuate, long-decurrent, apex acute or attenuate, mucronulate, margin, midrib and veins strigose beneath, glabrescent; petiole to 13 mm. Inflorescence axillary or a ± weakly defined terminal spike, 2.5-22 cm long, lax or rarely congested, each cymule 1-or 3-flowered, sessile; bracts ± spreading, lower pairs foliaceous, reducing upwards where oblanceolate, 11-38 (48) x 2.5-15 mm, apex acute or shortly attenuate, mucronate, hairs as leaves beneath or more widespread; bracteoles white-green, lanceolate-spinose, 2.5-10.5 x 0.8-1.2 mm. Outer calyx lobes subequal, ovate or lanceolate, anterior lobe 10.5-14 (16.5) x 3-5.5 mm, posterior lobe 11-17 (20) mm long, apex acute or attenuate, spinose, anterior lobe sometimes notched, surface strigose, rarely with a few minute glandular hairs towards apex, venation parallel, prominent in fruit; lateral lobes 10-14 mm long. Corolla 27-40 mm long, yellow, orange or apricot, pubescent externally; tube 10-18 mm long; limb in 4+1 arrangement; abaxial lobe 9-14 x 5-7.5 mm, offset by 4.5-8 mm; lateral and adaxial lobes subequal, 11-16 x 6.5-8.5 mm or adaxial lobes narrower, minimum 4.5 mm wide. Stamens with filaments 11.5-21 mm long, pubescent in proximal two-thirds; anthers 2.5-4 mm; lateral staminodes 1.3-2 mm, pubescent, antherodes c.l mm. Ovary glabrous or minutely hairy; style glabrous; stigma linear, 0.7-1.1 mm long. Capsule 13-16 mm long, glabrous or sparsely and minutely hairy. Seeds 7-8 x 4.5-6 mm.
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