Chaenostoma subspicatum Benth.

Stiff gnarled dwarf shrublet c. 50-300 mm tall, branches stout, erect, decumbent or ± prostrate, pubescent in two narrow bands down length of each internode, hairs up to 0.2-0.3 mm long, gland-tipped or not, old parts of branches bare, upper parts closely leafy, often with small brachyblasts. Leaves opposite, thick-textured, usually sharply ascending, ± appressed, imbricate, 3-15 x 1.5-7 mm, obovate, elliptic or cuneate in outline, apex acute to subobtuse, margins with 1-3(4) pairs of prominent teeth, revolute, base clasping, decurrent, lower surface glandular-punctate, hairs either wanting or few on blade, always present on lower part of margins and carried down the internode in a narrow band. Flowers solitary in the upper leaf axils forming short crowded (rarely lax) racemes sometimes branching into narrow panicles, vegetative growth continuing above floriferous part then flowering again. Pedicels 1-6(-13) mm long, stout, glandular-puberulous. Calyx bilabiate, tube 0.8-2 mm long, posticous lobes 3-6 x 0.8-1.7 mm, anticous somewhat broader, always puberulous on the margins otherwise glabrous to thickly beset with coarse hairs 0.2-0.7 mm long. Corolla tube 9-15 x 2.3-4 mm in throat, narrowly funnel-shaped, limb nearly regular, 9-15 mm across, posticous lobes 3-7 x 1.8-3.8 mm, anticous lobe 3.5-7 x 2.2-4.2 mm, all oblong, usually shades of pink, occasionally white, tube sometimes purplish, throat yellow or orange, glandular-puberulous outside, hairs 0.15-0.25 mm long, a few glistening glands as well, 5 longitudinal bands of clavate hairs inside, sometimes coalescing. Stamens 4, anticous pair shortly exserted, filaments 2-2.7 mm long, posticous pair included, filaments 1-1.5 mm long, rarely with a few clavate hairs near base, anthers 0.8-1.3 mm long. Stigma 1.4-2.5 mm long, exserted. Style 7-13.5 mm long. Ovary 1.2-1.8 x 0.8-1.2 mm, glabrous. Capsules 4-7 x 2-3 mm. Seeds (few seen) c. 0.8-1 x 0.3-0.5 mm, pallid. Flowering mainly between April and October.