Manulea leiostachys Benth.

Perennial herb, taproot stout, woody, up to 10 mm diam. at the crown, stems c. 550-1200 mm tall, erect, solitary to several tufted from the crown, usually simple below, rarely forking once or twice, often branching above to form a lax panicle, villous at the base with spreading white obtuse hairs up to 0.6-1 mm long, gland-tipped hairs of similar length frequent, rapidly becoming glabrous upwards, leafy in the lower half, remotely bracteate upwards. Leaves opposite, bases connate, lower ones c. 60-120 x 3-13 mm, upper c. 35-40 x 2-4 mm thereafter passing into a very few distant ± alternate bracts, narrowly to broadly oblanceolate, apex ± acute, base narrowed to a petiolar part, margins serrate (coarsely so in larger leaves), both surfaces pubescent, hairs glandular and eglandular, up to c. 0.4-0.75 mm long, apical cell of eglandular hairs globose or at least obtuse. Flowers many in a long narrow lax terminal thyrse c. 300-600 mm long, simple, or with a few sharply ascending branches, the lowermost often in the axil of a bract, the uppermost with a cymule interposed between branch and main axis, cymules dichasial, up to 15-flowered. Bracts (subtending lowermost cymule on main axis) c. 4-13 x 0.8-1.2 mm, oblong. Peduncles (of lowermost cymules on main axis) c. 4-15 mm long, pedicels very short or flowers sessile. Calyx obscurely bilabiate, tube 0.1-0.5 mm long, lobes 1-1.8 x 0.3-0.6 mm, subspathulate, the tips somewhat thickened, obtuse eglandular hairs up to 0.2-0.3 mm long on margins only, together with smaller gland-tipped hairs. Corolla tube 7.5-10 x 0.8-1.2 mm in throat, cylindric, inflated at apex, limb bilabiate, 5-8 mm across the lateral lobes, posticous lobes 2.3-4 x 1-2 mm, anticous lobe 2.3-3.75 x 1-2 mm, all narrowly elliptic, margins revolute, dull orange-brown or yellow-brown, pubescent outside only on backs of lobes and swollen part of tube, or occasionally a few hairs near the base, either glabrous inside or with a few clavate hairs in a longitudinal posticous line. Stamens 4, anticous anthers 0.4-0.5 mm long, just included, posticous anthers 0.8-1 mm long, included, posticous filaments weakly bearded. Stigma 0.8-1.6 mm long, shorter than style, included. Style 1.4-3 mm long. Ovary 1.3-1.6 x 0.6-0.8 mm, conical. Capsules c. 4-6 x 2-3 mm. Seeds c. 0.5 x 0.3 mm, pallid or violet-blue.