Selago distans E.Mey.

Dwarf woody shrublet c. 150-450 mm tall, well branched and twiggy, branches more or less erect, old bare inflorescence axes often persistent and subspinescent, old parts bare, young parts puberulous, hairs up to c. 0.15 mm long, recurved, sometimes viscous though glands invisible, closely leafy. Leaves opposite, soon alternate upwards, fascicled, largest primary leaves 2.5-9 x 0.7-1.1 mm, oblong, apex obtuse, base not or scarcely narrowed, margins entire, thickened, revolute, sometimes uniting to make leaf broadly elliptic in T.S., texture thick, midrib invisible, glandular-punctate, sometimes oozing, otherwise glabrous; axillary leaves similar. Inflorescence a. crowded spike c. 6-10 x 8 mm in flower, elongating and lower flowers becoming distant as it passes into fruit, either solitary at tips of twiglets or a few subsidiary ones on leafy peduncles developing at intervals below primary one. Bract adnate partially or wholly to calyx tube, lowermost 3-5 x 0.8-1.6 mm, narrowly elliptic or lanceolate-elliptic, apex subacute, thick-textured, glandular-punctate, otherwise glabrous or with a few hairs up to 0.1-0.15 mm long on margins at extreme base. Pedicels either wanting or up to c. 0.5 mm long. Calyx 2-3 mm long, campanulate, slightly oblique 5-lobed up to halfway to base, or occasionally lobing irregular, anticous lobes broader than other three, hairs up to 0.15-0.25 mm long on margins, outer surface clad in globular glands only or sometimes with a few hairs c. 0.1-0.15 mm long on keels. Corolla tube 3.4-4 mm long, funnel-shaped, limb 4.5-5 mm across lateral lobes, posticous lobes 1.3-2 x 1-2 mm, anticous lobe 2.1-3 x 1.1-1.4 mm, all lobes oblong-elliptic, white. Stamens: posticous filaments 2.1-3 mm long, anticous filaments 2.5-3 mm, all anthers far exerted. Stigma and style c. 3-6 mm long, style glabrous. Ovary c. 0.8 x 0.4 mm. Cocci 1.7-2 x 1.2-1.25 mm, light yellow-, light orange-or red-brown, smooth.