Diascia purpurea N.E.Br.

Stoloniferous perennial herb, stems few from the crown, simple or sparingly branched, up to 450 mm long, 3.5 mm diam., lower part prostrate, rooting near base, flowering part erect, sparsely glandular-pilose, more densely so on the inflorescence. Leaves mostly 20-45 x 15-50 mm, diminishing in size upwards, ovate, apex obtuse, base broadly cuneate, margins subentire or obscurely crenate, thick-textured, glabrous except for a few gland-tipped hairs on margins and over veins, dark green above, all but the youngest deep purple below; petiole up to 2 mm long, uppermost leaves nearly sessile. Flowers nodding, many in a terminal raceme, simple or sparingly branched, bracts up to 6 x 5 mm, ovate-lanceolate, acute; pedicels mostly 13-25 mm long, spreading at an angle of about 45°, curved at the tip, glandular-pilose. Calyx segments lanceolate, two anticous ones 5.5 x 2.25 mm, three posticous ones slightly smaller, all green, glandular-pilose. Corolla tube c. 5-7 mm long, bowl-shaped, deeply grooved down the back, two lateral spurs c. 3-4 mm long, strongly curved inwards under the base of the bowl, with a patch of dark sessile glands within at the tips; limb c. 18-20 mm long, anticous lobe very short (c. 2.5 mm), the two lateral lobes ascending to join the two posticous ones forming an upper lip c. 13 x 16 mm, lobes ± hemispherical, the laterals inflexed, whole corolla light to dark salmon-pink, spurs and the bowl of the corolla tube white, sparsely glandular-pilose outside, glabrous inside except for three patches of dark sessile glands around the sinuses of the four upper lobes; “window” elongate forming a grooved boss descending from just below the posticous sinus to the base of filaments, yellow marked in the upper part with brownish-maroon streaks or blotches. Stamens unalike, anticous pair erect, filaments c. 7 mm long, glandular-puberulous at the tips, anthers greatly reduced, sterile or producing a little yellow pollen; posticous pair projecting forward and lying in the bowl of the corolla tube, anthers 1.75 mm long, pollen green. Ovary c. 2.5 x 1.5 mm, deltoid in outline, ovules many in each loculus; style c. 5 mm long, reclining, stigma capitate, lying between the lower pair of anthers. Capsule c. 24 x 10 mm, oblanceolate in outline; seeds c. 2.5 mm long, curved, broadly winged.