Perennial herb with procumbent stems from woody rootstock; stems to 20 cm long, sparsely minutely puberulous when young. Leaves with scattered puberulous hairs along midrib beneath, otherwise glabrous, not scabrid; lamina narrowly ovate-elliptic, largest 2.8-5 x 0.7-0.9 cm; margin with 10-25 forward-directed teeth. Spikes 2-4 cm long, 6-12-flowered; peduncle 1-3 mm long, with 2-3 pairs of gradually larger sterile bracts; fertile bracts green with white veins and white basal part, glabrous (rarely with a few hairs on midrib), obovate, lower and middle 15-19 x 5-6 mm of which the recurved triangular spinose tip 5-7 mm, on each side with 3-4 teeth of which the longest 2-4 mm. Bracteoles ± 15 x 1 mm, linear, cuspidate, base not widened, glabrous. Sepals sparsely sericeous-puberulous along veins towards apex, otherwise glabrous, ciliate; dorsal ± 16 mm long, 7-veined from base, broadly ovate with long ligulate apical part, apex subacute to truncate with several small irregular teeth, sometimes also with a central mucro ± 1 mm long, apical part not scarious; ventral ± 14 mm long, 4-veined from base, veins parallel, ovate, narrowing gradually to an apex with two narrowly triangular mucronate teeth ± 3 mm long; lateral ± 8 mm long, ovate. Corolla white, ± 20 mm long of which the tube ± 4 mm; limb spathulate 7-10 mm wide, hairy all over beneath with upwardly directed hairs, central lobe about as wide as long, retuse, slightly narrowed at base; filaments ± 7 mm long, sparsely glandular; appendage ± 5 mm long, longer than anther, oblong, narrowing to the rounded apex; anthers ± 4 mm long. Capsule and seed not seen.
Home