Muraltia rigida E.Mey.

A densely branched rigid shrub, the branches becoming entangled with one another, apparently capable of reaching a height of 40 cm but rarely doing so owing to constant grazing by sheep and goats. Branches more or less cylindrical, the surface rough. Leaves 1-5-3-0 mm long, scattered, sessile, glabrous, oblong, thick and fleshy, shortly mucronate. Flower 4-0-5-0 mm long, white or pale pink, 1 or 2 in the axils of the leaves. Pedicel much shorter than the flower. Bracts 0-5 mm long, orbicular, minutely ciliate. Sepals oblong, very obtuse, glabrous, ciliate; the inner less than half the length of the side petals. Side petals linear widening slightly just below the middle, obtuse, a little longer than the carina. Claw of the carina slightly longer than the limb; the crest rather small, the width less than the length of the carina, the lower lobes slightly smaller than the upper, projecting forward. Ovary oblong, glabrous, shortly bidentate: the style stout, both branches usually fertile. Capsule oblong, with 4 short protuberances at the apex. Seed elongated, sparsely covered with short stiff hairs; caruncle with two ribbondike flaps reaching almost to the base.