Description:
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Perennial cushion-forming herb with many , tufted, radiating hairy stems, 10–20 cm long, growing from a somewhat woody rootstock. Leaves elliptic to linear-lanceolate, 7–20 mm long, hairless or hairy above; petioles 0-1 mm long; stipules forming a sheath with 3 filiform setae to c. 1 mm long. Inflorescence in several-flowered heads, c. 1 cm. in diameter. Calyx: enlarged, with 1 or 2 leaf-like lobes elliptic to linear-lanceolate, 3–6 mm long. Corolla white, pink, lilac or pale blue, tube filiform, 3.5–5.5 mm. long, hairless; lobes lanceolate, 2–3 mm long, sometimes a little hairy outside. Fruit yellowish brown to dark brown. |
| Literature:
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Burrows, J.E. & Willis, C.K. (eds) (2005). Plants of the Nyika Plateau Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 31 SABONET, Pretoria Page 245.
Verdcourt, B. (1988). Rubiaceae, Part 1 Flora Zambesiaca 5(1) Pages 147 - 148.
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