Blepharis dilatata C.B.Clarke

Decumbent shrub; branches up to 35 cm long, when young greyish to brown and minutely sericeous-puberulous with upwardly directed bulbous-based hairs, when old with thick corky bark. Leaves sparsely and minutely sericeous-puberulous along midrib only or also with scattered hairs on lamina, white-dotted when old; lamina elliptic to slightly obovate or narrowly so, largest 2-4.5 x 0.5-1.3 cm; margin with 1-7 teeth per side (rarely one side entire). Spikes 2.5-6 cm long, 4-12-flowered; peduncle 5-27 mm long with 2-3 pairs of sterile bracts; fertile bracts glossy, greenish to brownish, sometimes with whitish veins or whole basal part whitish, sparsely minutely puberulous on midrib (rarely all over), obovate, lower and middle 18-23 x 6-12 mm of which the straight to slightly recurved triangular spinose tip 4-6 mm, on each side with 5-7 teeth of which the longest 3-5 mm, teeth unequal at base, produced on the side towards the apex of bract. Bracteoles linear to lanceolate, 14-22 x 0.5-2 mm. Sepals dark green to brown, glabrous to minutely puberulous along veins, ciliate; dorsal 17-22 mm long, 3-5-veined from base, the veins sometimes forking repeatedly near apex, ovate elliptic with long spathulate apical part, apex truncate, irregularly toothed, apical part becoming scarious; ventral 13-18 mm long, (2-)5-veined from base, ovate-elliptic with slightly spathulate apical part or narrowing gradually to an apex with 2 triangular or broadly triangular mucronate teeth 2-3 mm long, sometimes with one small extra central tooth; lateral 8-10 mm long, ovate. Corolla blue with darker veins, 20-25 mm long of which the tube 4-7 mm; limb spathulate, 10-15 mm wide, central lobe wider than long, retuse, slightly narrowed at base; filaments 7-9 mm long, glabrous or sparsely glandular (densest downwards), two broad hairy at base or all without hairs; appendage ± 3 mm long, oblong, rounded, shorter than anther; anthers 3.5-5 mm long. Capsule 11-13 mm long; seed 7-8 x 4-5 mm.