Muraltia lancifolia Harv.

An undershrub, 20-40 cm high, branching chiefly near ground level. Young stems pubescent or hispid. Leaves fasciculate, crowded or somewhat distant; primary leaves 5.0-11.0 mm long, flat, lanceolate, acute, spine-tipped, the spine usually straight, occasionally slightly reflexed, the midrib prominent below, mostly glabrous but the margin and midrib setose or rough; secondary leaves as long as the primary or a little smaller, similar in shape but tapering more towards the base. Bracts 0.7-0.8 mm long, ovate, slightly concave, obtuse or acute, shortly ciliate near the tip. Flowers 6.0-7.0 mm long, pink, sessile or nearly so. Sepals glabrous, acute, ciliate, the outer lanceolate, concave, apiculate; the inner elliptical, almost flat, sharply mucronate, less than one-half the length of the side petals. Side petals linear but widening slightly near the middle, obtuse or refuse, somewhat shorter than the carina. Claw of the carina distinctly longer than the limb, the spongy area extending to the somewhat beaked apex: the crest with a more or less vertical line of attachment, projecting forwards, the width of the crest a little less than the length of the carina, the upper lobes a little larger than the lower. Ovary with rather short hispid horns: the style slender; the anterior branch short, truncate, occasionally with a small apparently receptive stigma; the posterior branch rather short, standing at right angles to the style. Capsule shortly hispid, about as broad as long, with slender horns of about its own length. Seed ellipsoidal with a few minute hairs,, the caruncle with rather narrow oblique membranous lobes.