Monsonia attenuata Harv. & Sond.

Erect, single-or few-stemmed perennial, 10-50 cm high. Roots sometimes with tubers of up to 60 x 10 mm. Stems herbaceous to sublignose, 2-40 cm long, 1-4 mm in diam., with a double indumentum the first of which is pubescent with curved hairs and the second is composed of long erect straight mostly gland-based hairs which may be few or many, often with stalked and sessile glands, main stems often branching laterally towards their apices forming terminal clusters of short, densely foliated branches. Leaves alternate, becoming crowded or almost whorled at the stem-apices; petioles with the same indumentum and glands as the stem, 0.1-0.5 x as long as the blade, 10-30 mm long, flattened above and at the base, often geniculate at the apex; stipules subulate to acicular, with the same indumentum and glands as the stem or only with erect hairs of various lengths, 3-25 mm long, mostly reddish; blade simple, linear, 9-20 x as long as wide, 25-75 x 3-10 mm, mostIy folded upwards along the midrib, mostly attenuate and mucronate, less often acute at the apex, truncate at the base, acutely serrate, rarely obscurely so, rarely ciliate at the margin, glabrous, granulose or obscurely to conspicuously puberulent or pubescent on both sides, the veins beneath always with few to many long straight gland-based hairs, often with sessile and stalked glands and, further-more, beneath sometimes glandular-punctate; veins pinnate, only the midrib prominent beneath and impressed above. Inflorescences terminal and/or lateral, when lateral axillary or not, 1-3flowered, 20-70 mm long. Peduncles and pedicels slender, with the same indumentum and glands as the stem, rarely pedicels lanuginose or with the same indumentum as the sepals outside; peduncles obsolete or up to 11 mm long; pedicels 20-65 mm long, geniculate under the fruit; involucral bracts 2-3 per flower, stipule-like, sometimes narrowly triangular and navicular. Sepals green, free, narrowly ovate to narrowly obovate, 2.3-5.5 x as long as wide, 10-15 x 3-6 mm, outside with the same indumentum as the stem, but this often obscure or denser than that on the stem, with numerous sessile and stalked glands, inside glabrous, with I Or 3 parallel main veins, ciliate at the margin; mucro 0.5-7 mm long, terete, reddish-brown, curved, with the same indumentum as the sepals outside. Petals obtriangular to broadly obtriangular, 1.3-2.2 x as long as wide, 20-30 x 9-20 mm, 1.6-2.2 x as long as the sepals, 2-2.3 x as long as the stamens, white to yellow or less often pink, obscurely villose inside and obscurely villose or puberulent outside, often with sessile or stalked glands; venation conspicuously reticulate, greyish-blue to green or blackish, with 5 main veins; base membranously winged and obscurely ciliate; apex crenate to dentate or lobed. Stamens monadelphous, arranged in a cup-shaped column around the pistil; groups basally connate for 0.5-1 mm; filaments of each group basally connate for 1.5-2.5 mm; filaments in the central stamens 7-11 mm and in the lateral 5-7 mm long, terete and mostly reflexed at the apex, obscurely hairy outside; an obscure to conspicuous ovate gland-cavity with 2 parallel, vertical rims and rarely a subulate apical appendage is situated on the outer side of the base ofeach group; anthers elliptic, those of the long filaments often slightly larger, 2.5-3.6 x 1.2-2 mm. Pistil 10-14 mm long; ovary broadly obovoid, 2 x 2 mm, hirto-pubescent; the beak pubescent and at the base with stalked glands, longitudinally grooved, 5-8 mm long; stigmas clavate or linear, 3-4 x 0.5-0.6 mm, outside pubescent, acute to obtuse al the apex and entire to subentire at the margin. Fruit 55-65 mm long, mericarps 11-13 x 2 mm, beak 45-50 mm long; mericarps narrowly and obliquely obovoid, brown, hirsute, at the apex coarsely reticulate; tail hirsute outside, hispid inside where the tails detach from the beak axis; these stiff hairs long at the tail's base, forming a crest. Seed narrowly obovoid, 4.5 x 1.5 mm, with a few scattered hairs sometimes present.