Piaranthus geminatus subsp. geminatus Meve

In P. barrydalensis the stems are rounded and practically without any angles, often more or less ‘globose’. This taxon is mainly recognised by the relatively small flowers (20-26 mm in diameter) with broad lobes (5-6 mm) and the ‘coarse dark red-brown bands on a rather whitish corolla’. In my own collections several plants have been sampled at each locality and the colour of the inside of the flowers has proved to be exceptionally variable. Some have coarse, dark, purplish red bands on whitish as in the type but many have deep red bands on cream with a patch of red at the apex of each lobe. Yet others have very fine, dark bands so that the flower is almost cream in overall colour. Among some of these collections are also plants with fine transverse stripes or even spots lower on the lobes changing to a dark purple-red or nearly black patch around the apices. These bear strong resemblance to specimens found at the eastern end of this complex which are usually attributed to ‘foetidus’.