Description :

• Shrubs or shrublets, erect or ascending, with dichotomous branching; young branches 4-ridged
• Leaves imbricate, with pale, almost white margins, grooved above and with prominent midrib on lower surface
• Flowers in terminal, congested racemes, bracteate; lower bracts foliaceous, upper narrow
• Perianth : tube cylindric, narrowed slightly towards base and throat, yellow, changing to carmine; lobes reduplicate-valvate in bud, becoming reflexed with age
• Stamens shorter than perianth lobes and filaments shorter than anthers; anthers cordate-ovate; thecae with membranous margin and longer than connective
• Ovary 4-locular, with 2 erect and 2 pendulous ovules in each locule; style terete, as long as or longer than perianth tube; stigma capitate, obscurely 4-lobed
• Capsule 13-15 mm long, excluding persistent style base

Nomenclature:

• Glischrocolla (Endl.) A.DC.
  • Candolle: 490 (1856)
  • Stephens: 96 (1915)
  • Dahlgren: 57 (1967)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 1: Glischrocolla formosa (Thunb.) R.Dahlgren (= G. lessertiana (A.Juss.) A.DC.), very rare in SW Western Cape