Selago thomii Rolfe

Dwarf woody shrublet c. 60-300 mm tall, virgately very well branched, old main stems eventually nude, up to 5-6 mm in diam., branches puberulous, hairs less than 0.1 mm long, closely leafy. Leaves opposite becoming alternate upwards, not fascicled, largest 2-4(-5) x 0.6-1 mm (see comments below), often strongly appressed on youngest branchlets, spreading on old woody parts, linear-oblong, triquetrous, apex obtuse, base not narrowed, decurrent, margins entire, plane, texture moderately thick, venation invisible but lower surface distinctly ridged longitudinally when dry, glandular-punctate, sometimes oozing, otherwise glabrous except on decurrent part. Inflorescence a many-flowered crowded spike sometimes becoming more lax as it passes into fruit, 5-18 x 6-8 mm, each solitary at the tip of innumerable leafy branchlets, eventually overtopped by new growth. Bract adnate to base of calyx tube, lowermost 1.8-3.8 x 0.5-0.8 mm (see comments below), linear-lanceolate, ± acute, glandular-punctate, hairs up to 0.1-0.2 mm long on lower margins together with very minute glands, occasionally a few minute hairs on back at base, inside minute globular glands. Pedicels wanting. Calyx 1.5-2.5 mm long, campanulate, 5-lobed roughly halfway to base, two anticous lobes slightly broader than other three, hairs up to 0.1-0.2 mm long on margins and all over outside together with minute glands, inside either glabrous or with a few minute glands at the tips of the lobes, particularly the anticous ones. Corolla tube 2-4 mm long, funnel-shaped, limb 3-4 mm across lateral lobes, posticous lobes 1-1.8 x 0.6-1 mm, anticous lobe 1.5-2.5 x 0.9-1.2 mm (all parts smaller when flowers female), all lobes oblong elliptic, white. Stamens: posticous filaments 1.1-1.2 mm long, anticous filaments 1.5-2.5 mm, all anthers far exerted. Stigma and style c. 2.5-4.3 mm long, style glabrous. Ovary c. 0.7 x 0.4 mm. Cocci 1.5-2 x 0.7-1 mm, red-brown, smooth, inner face plane, seed occupying whole of interior, pair of cocci held within the persistent calyx. Flowering occurs in most months; possibly November to June is the principal season.