Blepharis angusta T.Anderson

Perennial herb with several prostrate stems from a woody rootstock; stems up to 25 cm long, sparsely minutely puberulous when young. Leaves beneath with a few hairs on midrib or glabrous, above sparsely minutely scabrid-puberulous, one in the whorl usually much larger than the other three; lamina linear (very rarely some lanceolate), 2-9 x 0.1-0.2(-0.4) cm; entire (rarely a few with a single tooth per side). Spikes 1.5-3 cm long, 4-8-flowered; peduncle 2-10 mm long with 2-4 pairs of sterile bracts; fertile bracts not glossy, greenish to brownish, no part whitish, uniformly sericeous or sparsely so, (5-) 7-veined from base, lower and middle ovate to elliptic, 20-28 x 8-13 mm of which the slightly recurved narrowly triangular spinose tip 6-14 mm, on each side with 4-6 teeth of which the longest 3-6 mm. Bracteoles 11-16 x ± 1 mm, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, base slightly widened, sericeous (often only on midrib) and ciliate. Sepals sericeous or sericeous-puberulous or densely so all over; dorsal 14-17 mm long, 3(-5)-veined from base, with branching veins at apex, ovate-elliptic with ligulate or subligulate apical part, apex truncate, not wavy, irregularly toothed, scarious; ventral 10-15 mm long, 4-5-veined from base, ovate-elliptic, narrowing to an apex with two triangular and mucronate teeth 1-2(-3) mm long; lateral 5-8 mm long, ovate. Corolla mauve to blue (rarely almost white), 19-23 mm long of which the tube 4-6 mm; limb broadly obovate, 10-13 mm wide, beneath sparsely to densely hairy all over, central lobe longer than wide, retuse to emarginate, narrowed at base; filaments 5-7 mm long, glabrous or sparsely glandular; appendage 0.5-1.5 mm long, straight or curved, rounded; anthers 3-4 mm long. Capsule and seed not seen.