Description :

• Aerial, hemiparasitic, moderate-sized to large shrubby perennial, reaching a height of perhaps 1 m or more; spreading by haustoria-bearing surface runners
• Stems stout and robust, leaf-bearing shoots 3-5 mm thick, reddish brown, covered with thin greyish bark, peeling off in small strips; young branches densely shortly tomentose or glabrous on older branches
• Leaves subopposite-alternate, rarely fascicled, obovate, (45-)55-66(-74) X (25-)30-40(-45) mm, rounded at apex, cuneate at base, densely yellow-white tomentose when young, becoming glabrous and thickly coriaceous when older; margins entire, thickened; petioles 4-10 mm long
• Inflorescence a 3-6-flowered umbel, often fascicled on swollen nodes of older branches; peduncles 4-5 mm long, covered by dense yellowish white tomentum at least 1 mm thick (trichomes with whorls arising from a central axis)
• Flowers 5-merous, tubular, variable, up to 45 mm long, with short pedicels 1-2 mm long and conspicuous oblong-linear bracts 4-5 mm long
• Corolla gamopetalous, bilaterally symmetrical (the tube bearing only a short split 4-6 mm deep), yellowish white-tomentose; lobes erect, somewhat incurved apically
• Filaments arising at base of corolla lobes, erect, but curving inward to form a central, collective anther mass, pinkish purple at apex; anthers up to 4 mm long, orange-yellow on inside
• Style thickened and pubescent for half its length from below, thinner and glabrous above; stigma ellipsoid
• Berry unknown

Nomenclature:

• Vanwykia Wiens
  • Wiens: 422 (1978)
  • Wiens & Tölken: 28 (1979)
  • Germishuizen et al.: 2 (1994)
  • Polhill & Wiens: 221 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 1 (possibly 2) in eastern to southeastern Africa
• Southern Africa : Species 1: Vanwykia remota (Baker & Sprague) Wiens, occurs in the extreme northeastern part of Kruger National Park (Northern Province)