Trichodiadema introrsum (Hook.F.) Niesler

Shrubs to 35 cm tall, with tap-roots to 20 cm long or with entangled thinner roots, thickened partially only, stems erect to squarrose, when older, internodes with elongate-oval bladder cells, the upper younger ones often with a papilla pointing towards the apex, old internodes smooth, dark greyish-brown older branches, especially short ones, with two prickles at the nodes, appearing rough to the touch. Leaves mainly near the apex, but loosely so, erect and apically recurved, the apex with c.10 whitish bristles, each enclosed basally by a low orange-coloured cup, which latter surrounds only the bottom of the swollen base of the bristle, bristles spreading widely, breaking off with age, the epidermal cells tesselate, sometimes with papillae pointing to the apex, leaves up to 27 mm long, leaving short sharp spinules after they have decayed, forming the prickles described above. Flowers solitary at the end of long or short branches with ca. 3-5 internodes, pedicels with elongate-oval, often pointed bladder cells, the calyx base with big nearly globular bladder cells in dense arrangement, calyx lobes ca. as long as the petals, flower diameter 14-21 mm, petals 23-37, inner ochreous, yellow, golden, or orange coloured, the outer ones deep purple or reddish-purple, 9-21 filamentous staminodes white to orange or yellow, 24-28 stamens with white to yellow filaments. Capsules with stalks rough from dry bladder cells, base rough from round, somewhat distant bladder cells, rims of valves prominent and a little above 1 mm high, ochre to yellowish, expanding keels about as broad as valve wings, covering membranes of one septum almost heart-shaped, nearly covering the centre of the fruit, but leaving a wide triangle of the locule open and uncovered, diameter mostly c. 6mm.