Rotheca caerulea (N.E.Br.) P.P.J.Herman & Retief

A low much-branched shrub, 0.6-0.9 m [as '2-3 ft'] high; young branches dark brown, 4-angled, puberulous along 2 opposite lines when young, later with glabrous, cinereous, more or less tuberculate, wrinkled bark; leaves opposite, petioled, membranous, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or suboblong, acute, cuneate at the base, coarsely and acutely 3-4-toothed or serrate, rarely entire, sparsely puberulous above and on the nerves beneath, ciliolate along the margins, with 3-5 primary lateral nerves on each side, prominent beneath, 8.38-57.15 mm [as '1/3-2 and 1/4 inch'] long, 4.24-25.4 mm [as '1/6-1 inch'] broad; petiole puberulous, 2.1-12.7 mm [as '1-6 lin.'] long; cyme 1-3-flowered, pedunculate, solitary, axillary; peduncle slender, 2-bracteate near the summit, puberulous along the posterior line, otherwise glabrous, 19.05-31.75 mm [as '3/4-1 and 1/4 inch] long; flowers pedicelled, deep blue (Gerrard); bracts subulate, entirely glabrous or ciliolate on the margin, 2-3 mm [as '1-1 and 1/2 lin.'] long; calyx campanulate, 5-toothed, strongly 5-nerved, glabrous or minutely puberulous, 2-5 mm [as '1-2 and 1/2 lin.'] long; teeth 5, distant, narrowly deltoid, long-acuminate, acute, obscurely ciliolate on the margins, equalling the tube; corolla-tube bent, villous within at the throat, otherwise glabrous, about twice as long as the calyx; 4 upper lobes subequal, elliptic, obtuse; lower 1 cuneate-obovate, subtruncate; stamens and style far exserted, incurved; drupe 4-lobed, 2-seeded, glabrous.