Blepharis capensis (L.F.) Pers.

Very spiny erect to procumbent shrub; branches monopodial (really peduncles) with opposite spinose leaves (really sterile bracts) which support dwarf-shoots with a single whorl of vegetative leaves or long-shoots with several or numerous pairs of opposite leaves or whorls of leaves; young branches brownish to reddish brown, minutely puberulous on two sides with bulbous-based hairs or minutely puberulous all over (rarely puberulous), soon greyish. Leaves (sterile bracts) hard and leathery, glossy, glabrous, 0.8-3.5 cm long, with l-2(-3) spinose teeth per side to 1 cm long; vegetative leaves (on dwarf-or long-shoots) fleshy, often glaucous, glabrous to minutely puberulous with bulbous-based hairs leaving white dots (rarely with puberulent midrib); lamina elliptic to slightly obovate or narrowly so or lanceolate, largest 1.5-6 x 0.2-1 cm; margin with 1-12 teeth per side or some or all entire. Spikes terminal on branches, 2-8(-11) cm long, (2-)4-18-flowered; fertile bracts hard and leathery, glossy, greenish to brownish with whitish veins or whole basal part whitish, 3-5-veined from base with indistinct to distinct transverse veins, glabrous to minutely puberulous, densest towards tip of spike (rarely puberulous or (very rarely) pubescent), sometimes ciliate, elliptic to obovate, lower and middle 15-40(-45) x 4-10(-14) mm (glabrous if over 10 mm wide) of which the straight to reflexed triangular or narrowly triangular spinose tip 4-25(-29) mm, on each side with (1-)3-5 spinose teeth of which the longest 3-9 mm. Bracteoles linear-lanceolate, 9-18(-21) x 0.5-1.5 mm, rarely with a single tooth. Sepals sometimes reddish to purple, glabrous to minutely puberulous (very rarely pubescent), ciliate; dorsal (14-) 16-25 mm long, 3-5-veined (3 strong) from base, ovate-elliptic with short or long ligulate apical part, straight-sided or narrowing to the rounded to truncate 1-toothed or more or less irregularly 2-5-toothed apex, not becoming scarious (rarely so and then with slightly spathulate irregularly toothed apex); ventral 11-18 x 4-6 (-10) mm (with two minute teeth c. 0.5 mm long if over 6 mm wide), 5-veined (2 much stronger) from base, 2(-3)-veined at apex, ovate to elliptic or obovate, narrowing gradually to an apex with 2 triangular mucronate teeth 0.5-1.5 (-2) mm long, sometimes also with 1-2 smaller extra teeth between these; lateral 7-11 (-13) mm long, ovate or broadly so, puberulous-ciliate. Corolla white or creamy white with brown or mauve veins (rarely pinkish tinged), 20-28(-32) mm long of which the tube 4-7 mm; limb spathulate, 8-18 mm wide, central lobe wider than long, truncate to retuse, narrowed at base; filaments 7-10(-11) mm long, glabrous to sparsely glandular (densest downwards), two broad hairy towards base; appendage 2-4 mm long, oblong, rounded, shorter to longer than anther; anthers 3-5 mm long. Capsule 9-11 mm long; seed 6-8 x 3.5-4.5 mm.