Home
A herb or shrub with spines. It grows 40-90 cm tall. It has a woody rootstock. The stems are angular and spread out. The branches are straight and 60 cm long. The leaves are in opposite pairs. They are dull bluish-green. They have soft white hairs. The leaves are oval and taper to both ends. They are 2 cm long. There are 2 hooked thorns near the base of the leaves. The flowers are bright red. They are 5 irregular petals. The lower two are the longest. The flowers are red and about 4 cm across. The fruit are berries. The fruit are 1-2 cm across. They have slight lobes and are fleshy.
Leaves opposite, sometimes subopposite to alternate, shortly petiolate; lamina (0.7)1.5–6.3(9) × (0.5)1–3(6) cm, ovate or broadly-ovate to suborbicular or elliptic, sometimes broader than long, subacute to mostly rounded and shortly apiculate at the apex, rounded, broadly cuneate at the base, entire, ± densely hispid pubescent on both surfaces with soft erect hairs, some gland-tipped, or blades shortly crisped puberulous, ± concolorous, nerves inconspicuous above, prominent beneath; petiole 1.5–4.5(10–18) mm long.
Stems herbaceous, ± angular, stiffly divaricately branched; branches straight, up to c. 60 cm long; stems and branches with recurved sharp orange-brown spines, 1.75–10(17) mm long, in axils of the lower sterile leaves and straight divaricate spines in axils of the upper leaves (the latter spines derived from the peduncles after the flowers have fallen); indumentum of stems and branches ± densely villous with soft patent hairs 0.5–1 mm long, some gland-tipped, becoming shortly puberulous or glabrescent.
Corolla large, vermillion-scarlet shading into yellow at the base of the limb and throat or orange-red with cream-yellow throat; tube slightly curved in the bud but straight or nearly so at anthesis, 10–13 mm long; lobes hispidulous or glandular-pubescent on the outside, upper lip 14–17 × 7–8 mm, oblong, rounded at the apex, median lobe of the lower lip concave, 17–24 × 5.5–9 mm, oblong-obovate, rounded or subtruncate at the apex, the lateral lobes similar to the upper lip but slightly broader.
Flowers solitary in the axils of the upper leaves of stems and branches; true pedicels up to 3 mm long; bracts 2–9 mm long, linear to filiform; peduncles 0.7–1.6(2.5) cm long, spreading or ascending, terete, rigid, persisting as straight spines after the flowers have fallen.
Shrub or subshrub, 0.3-1.5 m high, with thick soft tomentum and curved orange-brown spines. Leaves opposite or subopposite, shortly petiolate, ovate to elliptic, entire, 15-40 x 10-30 mm. Flowers solitary, axillary, zygomorphic, scarlet or orange-red with yellow throat.
Fruit sitting in the persistent accrescent calyx, black, shining, smooth, 13–17 × 10–15 mm, ovoid, shortly hispidulous, slightly 2–4-lobed at maturity, with pulpy flesh; pyrenes 1–3(4?), bony, c. 11 × 8 mm.
A low spinescent many-stemmed suffrutex from a woody rootstock, forming dense patches with stems erect-ascending and 0.2–1.2 m high or radiating procumbent and up to 1.2 m long.
Calyx 9–15 mm long, campanulate, 5-lobed ± to the middle; lobes ovate and acuminate to lanceolate and then somewhat attenuate, acute.
Filaments 22–25 mm long, anthers c. 3 mm long, oblong.
Style and stamens exserted 1.5–2 cm.
Style 20–30 mm long.
