Phylica fruticosa Schltr.

A much branched, rigid shrub, up to 1.5 m high. Branchlets wiry, clothed with short, grey tomentum. Leaves ascending, 1-1.5 cm long: lamina ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, widely rounded at base, slightly incurved, with revolute margins; upper surface slightly convex, closely and finely tubercled, at first puberulous; lower surface exposed except for a narrow margin, reticulate-nervose or at least with the lateral nerves evident, tomentose: petiole 1.5-2 mm long. Capitula solitary, 6-8 mm wide, few-flowered, flattened above, surrounded by leaves. Bracts 2.5 mm long, linear, densely villous on the dorsal surface. Bracteoles 2, 1.5-2 mm long, linear or acicular, villous on the dorsal surface. Flowers 2.25-2.5 mm long, on a hirsute stipe: calyx-tube broadly obconic, 0.75 mm deep, pilose on the outer surface, with an inconspicuous disc fining the base within: sepals 1 mm long, deltoid-ovate, acute, erect-spreading, densely villous on the outer surface, with a ridge from the apex to the middle on the inner surface. Petals inserted at the mouth of the tube, 0.5 mm long: lamina ovate-rotundate, cucullate: claw less than half as long, cuneate. Anthers 2-celled, cordate, scarcely 0.5 mm long. Ovary obconic, villous, with long, white hairs around the base. Style stout, very short. Stigma inconspicuous, conical.