Spindly suffrutex c. 300-600 mm tall, stems few, tufted from a woody taproot, long, rodlike, simple or loosely virgately branched above, old stems bare, rough with persistent leaf bases, young parts pubescent, hairs 0.1-0.2 mm long, retrorse, all round stem or surface of decurrent leaf bases glabrous, closely leafy. Leaves opposite soon alternate upwards, not fascicled, erect, appressed or tips slightly recurved, largest 6-11 x 1.3-2.1 mm, lanceolate, apex acute, base scarcely narrowed, decurrent, margins entire, plane, texture leathery, midrib raised on lower surface, glandular-punctate, coarse upward-pointing hairs c. 0.1-0.2 mm long on margins, occasionally on midline on lower surface. Inflorescence a terminal spike c. 10-15 mm in diam., elongating to c. 40-120 mm, crowded in both flower and fruit, often solitary at tip of long leafy branch or a few subsidiary spikes developing lower down. Bract adnate to calyx tube, lowermost 4.5-6 x 1-1.5 mm, lanceolate, acute, base concave, glandular-punctate, hairs 0.15-0.2 mm long on margins only. Podicel wanting. Calyx 3-3.5 mm long, very deeply 3-lobed, anticolateral lobes 2.1-2.5 x 0.8 mm, narrowly triangular, hairs 0.15-0.3 mm long on margins and keels, globular glands all over outside, inside very minute glands all over. Corolla tube 4.5-6.8 mm long, funnel-shaped, limb 5-7 mm across lateral lobes, posticous lobes 2-2.8 x 1.2-1.8 mm, anticous lobe 2.5-4 x 1.2-1.4 mm, all lobes elliptic-oblong, shades of violet and blue. Stamens: posticous filaments 1-1.8 mm long, anthers included or in mouth, anticous filaments 1.8-2.3 mm long, anthers shortly exerted. Stigma and style 5.5-10 mm long, style glabrous. Ovary c. 0.8 x 0.4 mm. Cocci 1.8-2.1 x 0.8-1.1 mm, light red-brown, outside ± reticulately wrinkled, inside plane. Flowers can be found in any month.
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Tufted suffrutex, up to 600 mm high; stems few, simple or loosely branched above, rough as leaf bases persistent; retrorse-pubescent on young stems, hairs spread evenly or decurrent leaf bases glabrous. Leaves erect, appressed or apex somewhat recurved, main ones up to 11 x 2.1 mm, lanceolate, acute, base decurrent, margins entire, flat, leathery. Flowers in a terminal spike up to 15 mm in diam., lengthening up to 120 mm long in fruit, dense in all stages, often single, sometimes with smaller spikes lower down. Bracts: lowest ones lanceolate, concave at base, glandular-punctate. Calyx deeply 3-lobed, anticous lobes narrowly deltate. Corolla ± violet and blue. Anthers: lower ones shortly exserted, drying black. Flowering time all year.
Divaricately branched shrublet to 60 cm. Leaves not tufted, linear-lanceolate, recurved apically, margins hispid. Flowers in ovoid spikes, mauve or white.
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