Selago thermalis Hilliard

Dwarf shrublet c. 150-600 mm tall, branches spreading, decumbent or erect, old bare inflorescence axes often persistent and subspinescent, old parts bare, bark blackish, young parts puberulous, hairs less than 0.1 mm long, ± retrorse, arranged in broad longitudinal bands, closely leafy. Leaves opposite, tardily alternate upwards, mostly not fascicled, occasionally weakly so, largest leaves 5-17 x 0.5-1.3 mm, linear or linear-lanceolate, apex subacute to obtuse, base narrowed then abruptly expanded and half-clasping, margins entire, thickened, revolute, texture moderately thick, midrib invisible above, slightly raised below, young leaves clad in very minute globular glands, mature leaves glandular-punctate otherwise glabrous or with a few minute hairs on margins of clasping base. Inflorescence a crowded terminal spike c. 10 x 10 mm in first flower, elongating to unknown length in fruit, solitary at tips of short (c. 15-40 mm) closely leafy branchlets spreading more or less at right angles to main stem. Bract adnate to entire calyx tube, lowermost 3.2-5.1 x 0.5-1 mm, lanceolate, subacute, inner face almost plane, hairs less than 0.1 mm long on lower margins, minute globular glands scattered over both surfaces. Pedicels wanting or up to c. 0.3 mm long. Calyx 1.8-3 mm long, slightly obliquely campanulate, 5-lobed up to halfway to base, anticous lobes somewhat broader than other three, few hairs to 0.1 mm long on margins, outer surface clad in globular glands, sometimes a few hairs as well on posticous side. Corolla tube 3.4-4.8 mm long, funnel-shaped, limb 4.2-5.2 mm across lateral lobes, posticous lobes 1.2-2 x 0.8-1.2 mm or posticous lip occasionally only shallowly notched, anticous lobe 2-2.8 x 1-1.6 mm, all lobes oblong-elliptic, white. Stamens: posticous filaments 2.2-3.5 mm long, anticous filaments 2.7-3.7 mm, all anthers well exerted. Stigma and style c. 3.5-6.5 mm long, style glabrous or with a few globular glands. Cocci (very few seen) c. 2 x 1.2 mm, yellow-brown, smooth, two small incipient spurious cells visible in T.S.