Coleonema album (Thunb.) Bartl. & H.L.Wendl.

Shrubs to 1 m tall, dense, branching from the base. Branches spreading, variously bent, glabrous; bark greyish-brown, rough with horizontal leaf scars. Branchlets fairly numerous, erect, slender, densely puberulous, purplish, not hidden by the leaves except near the tips of new shoots, bark soon splitting decurrent from either side at the base of each petiole. Leaves 12-3.5 mm long including the petiole 1 mm long, 1.3-1.5 mm broad, oblanceolate-linear, acute, sharply mucronate, alternate, spreading, sometimes slightly recurved; hyaline margins narrow, denticulate or serrulate; adaxial surface somewhat convex when fresh, minutely puberulous along the middle towards the base; abaxial surface convex, 5-striped with 2 rows of gland dots and a few more scattered towards the margins. Inflorescence solitary, axillary, crowded towards the apices of the branchlets, the uppermost often terminal; buds pinkish tinged; flower 6-7 mm diam. Bracts numerous, as many as ten counted including 2 bracteoles, much reduced, some readily delapse, more or less in pairs as to size, increasing in size towards the calyx, penultimate pair 1.5 mm long, 0.9 mm broad, broadly lanceolate, acute with a sharp mucro; adaxially puberulous; abaxial surface glabrous, gland-dotted; margins broadly translucent, ciliolate. Bracteoles two, the uppermost pair of bracts are significantly the largest and may be referred to as bracteoles, 2 mm long, 1.3 mm broad, lanceolate, acute, sharply mucronate, adaxially pubescent in the middle above, abaxially glabrous, gland-dotted; margins broadly translucent, ciliate. Calyx lobes five, 2.5 mm long, 1.2 mm broad, oblong-lanceolate, acute with a minute sharp mucro; adaxial surface concave, puberulous in the middle above; abaxial surface glabrous, gland-dotted on the midrib towards the apex; margins broadly translucent, ciliate. Petals five, 4.8-5.1 mm long, limb 3 mm long, 1.9-2.1 mm broad, white, spreading, obovate, somewhat apiculate, glabrous; claw 2 mm long, narrowing evenly to the base, glabrous, with two elevated ridges up the middle of the adaxial surface about 0.4 mm apart forming a raised groove narrowing above. Staminodes five, 2 mm long, 0.3 mm broad, glabrous, with a minute pointed apical gland, connate with the petal except for 0.5 mm at the apex where free but lying within the groove of the petal. Filaments five, becoming 2.5 mm long, glabrous, acicular, erect. Anthers five, before anthesis 1.2 mm long, 0.7 mm broad, yellow with a minute globose apical gland. Pollen 47 µ long, 27 µ. broad, ellipsoidal. Disc sinuate, closely surrounds the ovary but never exceeds it, dark green, exudes nectar. Stigma 0.3 mm diam., capitellate, green, at first just equalling the tips of the lobes of the ovary. Style becoming 1 mm long, glabrous, erect. Ovary 5-carpellate, 1 mm long, 0.9 mm diam., glabrous, minutely gland-dotted; apices oblong, obtuse with a large round immersed gland above facing outwards. Fruit 5-carpellate, 7 mm long overall, 5 mm diam., glabrous, lumpy with gland dots, midrib prominent, green lips between adjacent carpels pressed tightly together; horns 2 mm long curving upwards with an immersed gland at the tip. Seed 3-4 mm long, 1.6-1.9 mm broad, black, shining; aril black crested.