Roella ciliata L.

Stems hairy, woody, sprawling, ascending or erect, up to 50 cm. long. Branches often divaricate, mostly from below the flower heads. Leaves usually crowded, 0-5-1 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, flat, narrowed from the base to the tip, more or less rigid, erect or spreading, the edges with few or many stout white setose hairs. Flowers usually solitary. Bracts numerous, not forming a distinct bulge below the flower, flat, narrowed from base to tip, 0-5-1-5 cm. long, acute, closely edged with stout white setose cilia, occasionally with a few setose hairs on the back, other wise glabrous. Innermost bracts occasionally with a few narrow pinnate teeth near the tip. Calyx lobes oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 3-6 mm. wide, much longer than the bracts, ciliate, often with stout hairs on the midrib but otherwise glabrous, the middle and upper parts with narrow lateral teeth. Calyx lobes at flowering time as long as or longer than the corolla tube. Corolla widely campanulate, 1-5-4-5 cm. long, most commonly 2-2-5, the lobes contiguous, rounded or slightly mucronate at the tip, about one and a half times as long as the tube. Corolla blue or blue-violet, occasionally white, with dark marks at the base of the lobes or more often a continuous dark-band, the dark part often edged with white. Ovary glabrous. Fruit with a rigid rim round the central pore.