Hermannia affinis K.Schum. ex Schinz

Suffrutex, with woody stems and branches, branchlets varying in colour from pale yellow, metallic, cinnamon-brown to plum-coloured, thick and squarrose to slender and virgate but all with ultimate branchlets becoming bare, indurated and spine-like (the persistent peduncles usually not indurating as in H. spinosa), at first minutely glandular hairy, covered by dense stellate pubescence which, at least on some twigs, is cinnamon-coloured and appears powdery, rarely with some gland-tipped hairs as well. Stipules 1.5-3 mm long, persistent, tomentose and with a few long hairs at apex. Leaves petiolate; blade usually oblong-cuneate, sometimes oblong-elliptic, coarsely but shallowly lobed in upper half, some leaves entire, often broadest at apex, 8-30 mm long, 4-15 mm broad at centre or near apex, densely stellate-tomentose, stellate hairs from a scaly base; petiole 3-6 mm long, tomentose. Inflorescence of 1-flowered, axillary cymes; peduncle 3-4 mm long, pedicel 1.5-4.5 mm long; bracts at apex of peduncle small, 0.5 mm long. Calyx 7-10 mm long, lobed to beyond middle, tube 3 mm long, lobes 7 mm long, stellate-tomentose without, sparsely pubescent within, ciliate. Petals in shades of red and purple, about 9 mm long, 2-3 mm broad, oblong-cuneate, narrowly inrolled along margin in lower half. Stamens with hyaline, obovate filaments, sparsely hairy on shoulders, anthers ciliate, overlapping filaments at base. Capsule 7 mm long, glandular and sometimes also stellate-pubescent on surface, setose along sutures; horns spreading to recurved, pilose, about 8 mm long.