Erect shrub (? or woody herb), ¼-1½ m, branches ± strict, rooting at the base; branchlets 2-lined when young, eventually terete. Leaves sessile, 7—13(—16) by 1½-6 mm, narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic-oblong, apex rounded, base cuneate to rounded, concolorous, plane, ascending or appressed; c. 7 main lateral veins, mostly from basal loops, ± parallel, little branched, uniting near margin and apex, without marked reticulate venation; laminar glands pale, linear, sometimes with rows of dots on either side, becoming ± interrupted towards margin; intramarginal glands pale only. Inflorescence 1-flowered, with strong flowering shoots in uppermost axils and often weaker ones in axils immediately below, the repeated branching producing an effect of bifurcation; pedicels equalling or exceeding uppermost leaves, 8-15 mm, long in fruit. Flowers l½-2½ cm Ø, plane; buds narrowly ovoid, rounded. Sepals 4-6 by 1½-2 mm, free, imbricate, ovate-lanceolate, subacute, entire; laminar glands pale, all or mostly linear; submarginal glands pale or reddish. Petals bright yellow, orange-or red-tinged below, 9-14 by 3-5 mm, obovate to oblanceolate, entire, persistent; apiculus absent or almost so; laminar glands pale, linear, sometimes interrupted distally; marginal glands absent or one, sessile, reddish, on apiculus. Stamens obscurely 3-fascicled, 25-35, longest 6-8 mm, c. ¾ as long as the petals, persistent; anthers bright yellow, gland black. Ovary 2 mm, ovoid; styles 3, 2 mm, equalling the ovary, divergent; stigmas narrowly capitate; placentas 3, parietal except at the very base. Capsule 6-9 by 3½-4½ mm, ± broadly to narrowly ovoid or ovoid-pyramidal, longitudinally vittate. Seeds yellow-brown, c. ¾ mm, cylindric to cylindric-ellipsoid, slightly carinate, densely linear-foveolate.
Home