Perennial rhizomatous subshrub 1–9 dm. tall, scrambling to reclinate or erect, ± tufted, rooting at the nodes from the creeping stems; rhizomes 1–10 mm. thick; stems rather profusely branched near ground level, leafy above, leafless below, woody, quadrangular in cross-section towards the top, terete below; internodes 0.3–2.0(–5) cm. long.. Leaves mostly cauline, membranous, spathulate, 0.8–4.1 cm. long, 0.3–1.5 cm. wide in the flowering shoots, 2.5–5.7 cm. long, 0.7–1.4 cm. wide on the vegetative shoots, obtuse to acute, shallowly crenate to almost pinnatifid on the petiole below (lobes diminutive) or entire, pilose to glabrous.. Inflorescence an aggregate dicha-sium, frequently globose to somewhat elongate, 0.8–4.8(–8) cm. long, 0.8–2.5 cm. wide; floral bracts cuneate-truncate, 2–8 mm. long, 0.8–3.0 mm. wide.. Flowers nearly always perfect (plants occasionally gynodioecious), white, pink to purple or brownish-red.. Calyx-limb short, cupuliform, ± dentate, not forming a feathery pappus in fruit.. Corolla rotate, 5-lobed, barely gibbous, 1.5–2.5 mm. long, glabrous throughout; lobes regular or slightly irregular.. Stamens 3, included; anthers 4-lobed, white.. Style 3-lobed, included in perfect flowers, slightly exserted in pistillate flowers.. Achenes broadly ovate to ovate-oblong, 1.7–2.6 mm. long, 1.0–1.7 mm. wide, glabrous (in specimens from Mt. Kenya and Kilimanjaro) or pubescent (in most specimens from Aberdare Mts. and Elgon), brown.. Fig. 1.
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