Barleria senensis Klotzsch

Perennial herb or shrub 30-150 (300) cm tall, erect or straggling; stems glabrous or uppermost internodes minutely puberulous on opposite sides. Axillary spines small, often sparse, rarely absent, 4 (6)-rayed, stalk to 1.5 mm long, longest ray 1.5-7.5 mm long. Leaves sometimes immature at flowering; mature blade elliptic(-lanceolate) or ± obovate, 4-14 x 1-6 cm, base cuneate or attenuate, apex acute or attenuate, apiculate, leaf buds densely pale-strigose but soon glabrescent except along margin and midrib beneath; petiole 0-10 mm. Inflorescence a congested head or spike 1.5-8 cm long terminating main and short lateral branches, sometimes with additional flowers in upper leaf axils, each cymule 1 (3)-flowered; bracts usually white in proximal half, green above and along main veins, rarely green throughout, obovate to broadly spathulate, 7.5-16 x 3.5-12.5 mm, apex rounded, truncate or emarginate then shortly attenuate into a mucro, main veins and margin of distal half strigose, margin of proximal half usually with spreading, bulbous-based hairs, surface with short (rarely subsessile) glandular hairs in distal half, sometimes with interspersed finer short eglandular hairs, few broad sessile glands usually present towards base; bracteoles white with green midrib, rarely green with pale margin, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, (5.5) 7.5-14 x 1-2 mm, mucronate. Calyx lobes green with paler margins, later turning whitish-green, outer lobes lanceolate, 7-12.5 x 2.5-4 mm, apex acute or attenuate, mucronate, anterior lobe sometimes notched, with a few short eglandular and glandular hairs towards apex, sometimes longer ascending hairs along margin, elsewhere glabrous, venation inconspicuous; lateral lobes somewhat narrower. Corolla 23-36 mm long, yellow, orange, apricot or ochre-coloured, pubescent externally, limb with mixed eglandular and glandular hairs; tube 9-15.5 mm long; limb in 4+1 arrangement; abaxial lobe 8.5-13.5 x 5.5-8.5 mm, offset by 4-9 mm; lateral lobes 10-15 x 6-9 mm; adaxial lobes 9.5-14 x 5.5-8 mm. Stamens with filaments 12-20 mm long, shordy pubescent in proximal half; anthers 2.5-3.5 mm; lateral staminodes 0.5-1.5 mm, pilose, antherodes 0.6-1.1 mm. Ovary glabrous; stigma linear, 0.6-1 mm long. Capsule 12-17 mm long, glabrous. Seeds 7.5-9 x 4.5-6 mm.