Shrub or small tree 1.5–5 m high; bark smooth dark grey to black; branchlets pubescent; stipules very short almost reduced to lines.. Leaves petiolate; blade elliptic or narrowly elliptic, sometimes obovate, 1.2–8 cm long, 0.3–2 cm wide, rounded or obtuse at the apex, cuneate at the base or decurrent into the petiole, entire, thinly papery when dried, glabrous or puberulous, with obscure reticulate venation when mature; petiole 0.5–2 mm long, pubescent.. Inflorescence few-flowered, 1.5–2.5 cm long, pubescent in all parts; peduncle 1–3 mm long; bracts sepal-like; pedicels 4–6 mm long.. Flowers very sweetly scented; sepals ovate or broadly ovate, 1.5–2.8 mm long, obtuse, glabrous, with one large squamella inside; corolla tube greenish, 5–8 mm long, almost cylindrical, with stiff recurved hairs inside on the filament ridges; corona white, 1–1.5 mm high, shortly lobed, undulate, glabrous or pubescent outside; lobes white or creamy, oblong, 10–15 mm long, 3–5 mm wide, rounded, spreading; stamens exserted; pistil 4.5–6.5 mm long, glabrous; ovules 30 in each carpel; style rather thick, persistent when corolla is shed, 2–5 mm long.. Fruit follicles united at the extreme base, narrowly fusiform, 12–31 cm long, 8 mm wide, pubescent outside, acuminate at the apex, narrowed towards the base; seeds pale brown, 19–25 mm long, 2 mm wide, longitudinally ribbed with coma 3.5–4 cm long, of dirty white smooth hairs.. Fig. 24 (p. 70).
Dry, rocky Acacia and Commiphora bushland, at elevations from 100-1,000 metres. Wooded steppe on red, sandy soils.
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