Selago grandiceps Hilliard

Dwarf woody shrublet or perennial herb c. 300-350 mm tall, stoutest stem seen 5 mm in diam., main stems tufted from a simple woody taproot, erect, virgately branched, old parts bare, woody, young parts closely leafy, pubescent, hairs c. 0.1 mm long, recurved. Leaves alternate, not fascicled, imbricate, appressed then spreading-recurved with age, largest ones 3.5-6.5 x 0.8-1.25 mm, oblong-elliptic, apex obtuse, base scarcely narrowed, decurrent, margins entire, plane, texture moderately thick, midrib raised on lower surface, glandular-punctate, often oozing, otherwise glabrous except for few minute glands on margins, glabrescent. Inflorescence a crowded raceme c. 15-40 x 1518 mm, not elongating in fruit, each terminating a long leafy branchlet, mostly solitary, occasionally one to few subsidiary branchlets developing below terminal one, old bare inflorescence axes often persistent, subspinescent. Bract adnate to pedicel and extreme base of calyx tube, lowermost (5-)5.5-7 x 0.7-1 mm, linear-lanceolate, very acute, glandular hairs 0.2-0.6 mm long on margins sometimes a few acute hairs as well, on outer face glandular hairs c. 0.15-0.5 mm long at least on lower half, together with a few acute hairs, inside similarly glandular. Pedicel c. 0.1-0.2 mm long. Calyx 2.8-3.8 mm long, campanulate, subequally 5-lobed more than halfway to base, lobes narrowly triangular, acute, glandular hairs c. 0.2-0.4 mm long on margins and outside, sometimes a few acute at tips c. 0.6-0.8 mm long, inside glandular hairs to 0.15-0.2 mm long. Corolla tube (5.5-)6.4-8 mm long, funnel-shaped, limb 4.5-6 mm across lateral lobes, posticous lobes 1.5-2.25 x 0.8-1.25 mm, anticous lobe 2.1-3.1 x 1-1.8 mm, all lobes oblong-elliptic, white. Stamens: posticous filaments 1.1-1.8 mm long, anthers in mouth or very shortly exerted, anticous filaments 2-3 mm long, anthers well exerted. Stigma and style c. 7-11 mm long, style glabrous. Ovary c. 0.5 x 0.3 mm. Cocci 2-2.25 x 1-1.4 mm, red-or purple-brown, smooth, inner face plane, pair of cocci held within persistent calyx. The plants flower between August and November, mainly in September.