Diosma meyeriana Spreng.

Shrubs 0.4 to 1 m tall, diffuse, normally single-stemmed at base. Branches fairly erect, slender, quite long, glabrous, smooth, leafless, branching alternately, dark reddish-brown. Branchlets not very numerous, erect, straight, slender, glabrous, well clothed with leaves, reddened where exposed. Leaves 6-9.5 mm long, 1-1.3 mm broad, linear-lanceolate, acute, glabrous, ciliolate becoming more or less eciliate, erect, adpressed, imbricate on new shoots, sessile, alternate; apex with a straight sharp mucro; cartilaginous margins narrow with a sharp edge; adaxial surface fairly flat, concave when dry; abaxial surface rounded with two rows of gland dots. Inflorescence terminal, racemose-reduced; flowers crowded together on very short branchlets in varying numbers, opening at different times, each scarcely 4 mm diam. when open. Bract 1.7-2.3 mm long, 0.7-0.8 mm broad, lanceolate, acute, mucronate with a sharp point, ciliate, glabrous, adpressed, round backed, gland-dotted, cartilaginous margins fairly broad. Bracteoles two, 1.5 mm long, 0.7 mm broad, broadly lanceolate with a thick rib prolonged into a sharp pink mucro, glabrous, ±1-gland-dotted, asymmetrical in outline; margins ciliate, broadly translucent. Calyx lobes five, 1.7 mm long, 0.6-0.8 mm broad, broadly lanceolate, glabrous; midrib gland-dotted; apex with a sharp point; margins ciliate, broadly translucent. Petals five, 2 mm long, 1 mm broad, oblanceolate-oblong, apiculate, sessile, white, glabrous, not spreading widely but closing up after anthesis and persisting for a long time, arising towards the summits of the lobes of the disc. Staminodes absent. Filaments five, becoming 1 mm long and spreading after anthesis, glabrous, subulate. Anthers five, 0.7 mm long, 0.5 mm broad, yellow; apical gland globose, minute, pale greenish. Pollen 45 µ long, 22 µ broad, oblong. Disc sinuate-crenulate, stands open, green, exceeds the ovary. Stigma 0.15 mm diam., capitellate. Style at first deflexed, later becoming erect, 0.8 mm long, glabrous. Ovary 5-carpellate, 0.5 mm long, 0.6 mm diam.; apices globose, green becoming reddened. Fruit 5-carpellate, carpels 7-9.5 mm long, pale yellowish-green, glabrous, gland-dotted, not shining; horns 1.5 mm long, fairly erect, reddened; apical gland immersed, facing outwards. Seed 4.7-5.7 mm long, 2.1 mm broad, black, matt; aril black with white streaks.