Diosma strumosa I.Williams

Shrubs 0.8-1.2 m tall, erect, arising from a single stem at ground level. Branches erect, rigid, glabrous, few in number; bark smooth, greyish-brown. Branchlets erect, minutely puberulous, fairly slender, not very numerous, short due to grazing by animals. Leaves 2.6-6.2 mm long, 1.1-2 mm broad, lanceolate, obtuse, fairly erect, sessile, alternate, minutely puberulous on all sides, indistinctly gland-dotted along either side of the midrib and along the margins, turgid on the inside when fresh. Inflorescence terminal, solitary or with a second flower closely adjacent; flower 8-10 mm diam., with white petals spreading from the wine-coloured disc; calyx puberulous, sessile. Bract 1.3 mm long, 1.1-1.2 mm broad, ovate, obtuse, puberulous on all sides; margins ciliolate, narrowly translucent below; apex thickened. Bracteoles two, 1.3 mm long, 1 mm broad, sub-ovate, obtuse, puberulous on all sides; margins ciliolate, broadly translucent below. Calyx lobes five, 1.9-2 mm long, 1.4-1.5 mm broad, deltoid, obtuse, rather whitish, puberulous on both surfaces; margins ciliolate, broadly translucent below; apex thickened, elevated, green. Petals five, 4.1-5 mm long, 2.1-2.2 mm broad, lanceolate, acute, sessile, often persisting; margins sparsely ciliolate in the lower third; apex thickened, puberulous outside. Staminodes five, 0.1 mm diam., globose, wine-coloured, vestigial, situated towards the outer margin of the disc on the elevated segments of the disc. Filaments five, 2.1 mm long, acicular, pinkish, clothed with a few minute hairs, spreading widely after anthesis. Anthers 1 mm long, 0.7 mm broad, wine-coloured; apical gland semi-immersed, dark wine-coloured. Pollen 51 µ long, 24 µ broad, oblong. Disc sinuate-crenulate, fleshy, wine-coloured, spreading wide open, exceeds the ovary by a long way. Stigma 0.3 mm diam., capitellate, reddened. Style at first deflexed, becoming 1.7 mm long, erect, pinkish, persisting, clothed with a few minute hairs in the lower half. Ovary 5-carpellate, 0.6 mm long, 0.8 mm diam., glabrous, truncate. Fruit 5-carpellate, 7 mm long, 8 mm across the tips of the horns, sessile; carpels minutely puberulous, lumpy with gland dots in deep pits; horns 2 mm long, spreading 45°, with an immersed apical gland. Seed 3.8-4 mm long, 1.8-2 mm broad, black, shining; aril with narrow black stripes.