Chironia tetragona L.F.

Annual or biennial suffrutices, more or less viscid in parts, erect, from about 30 to 60 cm high, rather rigid, usually virgately branched from near the base, leafy to within 1-5 cm of the flower, branches more or less quadrate, the angles usually prominent or narrowly winged, miscroscopically marked with shiny subcutaneous thread-like striae. Leaves variable in shape and size, ovate-oblong, narrowly oblong or linear to subulate, 1-3 cm long and 1-11 mm broad, erect-spreading, rather coriaceous, usually viscid, upper surface wrinkled, and sometimes minutely rugose in parts (shagreened), lower surface with the midrib distinct, margin recurved, apex subobtuse or more often acute with a small hooked mucro, both surfaces usually with the same miscroscopic shiny thread-like striae as found on the branchlets. Flowers more or less viscid, terminal, solitary or in few-flowered monochasial cymes; peduncle from about 1 to 5 cm long, slightly enlarging towards the apex where it is 5-10 ridged or winged. Calyx 6-18 mm long, 5-10 keeled or winged, lobed to about the middle; lobes deltoid, broadly acuminate to a subobtuse apex or definitely acuminate to a narrow apex, usually with an apical hooked mucro, keeled, the keel decurrent on to the peduncle forming 5 of the keels or wings of the calyx and sometimes the margins decurrent as a narrow keel or wing from the sinus to the peduncle, making 10 keels or wings. Corolla pink (appearing yellowish in dried specimens and wrongly so described in the original diagnosis); tube cylindric, 6-10 mm long, longer, as long as or shorter than the calyx, whitish (bony) and definitely thickened, especially at the insertion of the stamens in the throat; lobes elliptic to obovate-oblong, 1.6-2 cm long, 6-12 mm broad, broadly rounded at the apex: Stamens Inserted on the rim' filaments about 3.5 mm long, thickened at the base; anthers about 8 mm long, straight or very slightly twisted at the apex, dehiscing apically at first but full length eventually. Ovary about 9 mm long, narrowing into the 11 mm long style, curved at apex; stigma small, usually 0.5 mm to under 1 mm diam., terminal. Capsule (black on dried specimens) up to 2 cm long, 6 mm diam. below, narrowing to an acute apex, splitting from above into 2. Seeds numerous, reticulate.