Rhabdothamnus solandri

Detailed description

Shrub up to c. 2 m. tall. Branches numerous, compact, rather brittle, grey-brown to grey, scabrous sparsely to densely hairy. Branchlets slender, oppositely arranged with branches, densely leafy or not, scabrous, densely covered in indumentum of 0.2–0.4 mm long, dark red-brown to pallid, stiff, strigose, conical, multi-celled hairs. Leaves, dark green, yellow-green to grey-green, ± coriaceous to cartilaginous, often rather brittle, midrib and veins distinct, lamina surfaces densely covered in semi-appressed to patent, dark red-brown to pallid, strigose, 0.5–0.8(–1.0 or more) mm long hairs; petioles 3–10(–15) mm long, slender, densely covered in scabrid hairs, brittle. Lamina (0.5–)10–20–50(–65) × (0.6–)15–30–50(–60) mm, broad-ovate, suborbicular to orbicular, margins coarsely serrate-dentate. Flowers solitary, nodding, 20–25(–40) mm long, ciliolate, usually orange, but sometimes yellow, purple or pink, longitudinally striped by 12–14(–20) red or dark orange veins; pedicels 10–40 mm long, slender, purple, densely pilose-hairy, hairs pallid. Calyx 10–15 mm long, pilose, calyx lobes 6–9 mm long, ovate, deltoid to triangular-acuminate. Corolla tube 10–20 mm long, subcampanulate to funnelform; corolla lobes 5–10(–20) mm long, broadly ovate, to oblong, apex obtuse to rounded erecto-patent to spreading. Stamens 4, 12–14(–20) mm long, adnate to corolla tube, filaments slender, incurved above, dark red, glabrous; anthers cruciately paired, 0.8–1.4 mm long, pollen cream. Staminode 10–12(–18 m) mm long, adnate to corolla tube. Disk small, annular. Ovary ovoid, bilocular. Style curved at apex, 11–13(–19) mm long, filiform, red; stigma small, obconic, apex bilobed. Capsule 6.5–7.2(–11.4) mm long, invested by persistent calyx, ovoid, tapered to apex; placentae thick, bilobed; seeds numerous, 0.4–0.6 mm long, ellipsoid or obovoid, test reticulate, glabrous, dark red-brown.