Phyllopodium namaense (Thell.) Hilliard

Annual herb c. 20-150 mm tall, stems in all but the smallest plants several from the base, erect, either simple, nude and terminating in an inflorescence or with one to several pairs of branches, each terminating in an inflorescence, these branches again regularly branching, to produce a twiggy rounded leafy clump, stems sparsely to densely pubescent with ± obtuse retrorse hairs c. 0.2-0.5 mm long, those below the lower pair of leaves very short (c. 0.1 mm). Leaves: radical leaves 4, opposite and decussate, c. 9-28 x 5-20 mm, broadly elliptic to rhomboid-elliptic tapering to a broad flat petiolar part, entire, very thinly pubescent to glabrous on both surfaces, hairs on margins of lower half of leaf 1-1.5 mm long or sometimes very few and shorter, upper leaves always narrower and progressively shorter upwards. Flowers many in crowded rounded heads becoming oblong in fruit. Bracts at base of inflorescence c. 3.25-7 x 0.75-2.2 mm, oblong to elliptic, adnate to pedicel and lower half of calyx tube, glabrous except for patent hairs on margins, up to 1 mm long. Pedicels up to 0.8 mm long. Calyx distinctly bilabiate, tube 1-1.5 mm long, anticous lobe 1.5-2.5 x 0.75-1.5 mm, glabrous except for small hairs on margins. Corolla tube 2.75-3.75 x 1.2-1.5 mm, broadening in the throat, limb 4-6 mm across the lateral lobes, posticous lobes 0.4-1.25 x 0.5-0.8 mm, orange, pubescent, anticous lobe 2-3 x 1-1.75 mm, anticous lip white or mauve, glabrous or with a few hairs near the base of each lobe. Stamens 4, anthers 0.5-0.75 mm long. Stigma well exserted. Capsules c. 3.5 x 3 mm Seeds c. 0.75 x 0.5 mm, obscurely trigonous, colliculate and wrinkled, pallid.