Coleonema aspalathoides A.Juss.

Shrubs forming dense stands, 0.5-1.3 m tall, dense, bushy, branching from near the base. Branches numerous, fairly erect, not very straight, glabrous, smooth, reddish-brown. Branchlets very numerous, very slender, erect, minutely puberulous, not hidden by the leaves. Inflorescence solitary, terminal on very short branchlets that may be so reduced and numerous that the flowers appear to be axillary and/or crowded into spikes; flowers 8-10 mm diam., petals pink, throat open, subtended by several reduced leaves. Leaves up to 12 mm long, perhaps slightly longer in young plants, 1.0-1.2 mm broad, linear-oblong, acute glabrous, dark green, alternate, spreading-erect; apex often re flexed with a sharp point about 1 mm long; narrowed at the base to a reddish petiole about 1 mm long; margins narrowly translucent, minutely serrulate; abaxial surface rounded, irregularly gland-dotted in two rows towards the midrib. Bract 1.6-1.8 mm long, 0.8-1.0 mm broad, ovate, acute, recurved-apiculate, partly puberulous-margins ciliolate, broadly translucent; gland-dotted towards the midrib. Brae teoles two, 1.7 mm long, 1 mm broad, ovate, acute, apex elevated, margin ciliate, broadly translucent, pubescent above to either side of the midrib. Caly lobes five, 2.5 mm long, 1.3 mm broad, sub-ovate, apex tapering with a long sharp reddened recurved point; margins broadly translucent, villous-ciliate; abaxial surface puberulous to either side of the midrib; adaxial surface minutely pubescent at the middle. Petals five, 5.5 mm long, 2.2 mm broad, obovate, apiculate, narrowing evenly to the base; limb pink, spreading; claw sparsely ciliolate, sparsely pubescent below and at the apex of the staminode. Staminodes five, 2 mm long, 0.4 mm broad, linear, white, obtuse with a minute yellowish apical gland 0.1 mm long, connate with the claw of the petal below but not enfolded. Filaments five, becoming 2.3 mm long after anthesis, glabrous, subulate. Anthers five, 1 mm long, 0.7 mm broad, orange-yellow with a minute pointed apical gland. Pollen 42 µ long, 25-30 µ broad, spherical to sub-cylindric. Disc obvallate, thin, dark green, exceeding the ovary. Stigma 0.65 mm diam., depressed globose, capitate. Style becoming 1 mm long, erect, glabrous, rather slender. Ovary 5-carpellate, 0.8 mm long, 0.7 mm diam., glabrous, apices globose. Fruit 5-carpellate, 4.5 mm long, 3.5 mm diam., carpels glabrous with a prominent midrib and lateral ribs; horns 1 mm long, erect, apex somewhat hoof-shaped. Seed 2.5 mm long, 1.2 mm broad, black, shining; aril brownish. The wide-open flower with its dark green disc and sticky pollen leads one to assume that it is most probably pollinated by insects. The plants are destroyed by fires and regeneration can only take place from seed which is ejected by the usual catapult mechanism when ripe.