Faroa axillaris Baker

Annual herb 8–20 cm high.. Stem usually branched from the base.. Basal leaves obovate-oblong or oblong-spatulate, 13–32 mm long, 5–14 mm wide, obtuse; the upper oblong-lanceolate, dilated, scarious, acute, connate and inflated at base, forming an involucre, 5-nerved beneath.. Inflorescences axillary, many-flowered fascicles, flowers sessile or very shortly pedicellate; bracts subtending inflorescence 28–32 mm long, 8–6 mm wide, distinctly inflated at the base to hold the flowers, 6–10 mm wide at the point of inflation.. Flowers blue, mauve or white.. Calyx almost divided to the base; tube ± 1 mm long; segments obovate-oblong or oblong-spatulate, ± 2.8 mm long, 0.8–1 mm wide at base, obtuse, with 3 distinct nerves.. Corolla with tube funnel-shaped to urceolate, 1.7–2.2 mm long, minutely papillose; lobes ovate, 1–1.2 mm long, 0.6–0.8 mm wide, acute, margins often inrolled, conspicuously papillose on the outer surface.. Filaments ± 0.6–0.8 mm long; anthers 0.2–0.4 mm long.. Ovary obovoid, 0.8–1.5 mm long, ± 0.5 mm diameter; style ± 1.1 mm long; stigma minutely bilobed; lobes filiform, recurved.. Capsule obovoid, 1.8–2.1 mm long, 1–1.3 mm diameter.. Seeds ± 0.6 mm in diameter, surface pitted.. Fig. 9 (p. 33).