Description:

• Low shrublets, 200-300 mm high, with smooth, reddish stems from which a reddish powder may flake off; roots fibrous
• Leaves decussate, always equal and similar, ascending or spreading, lower side rounded, upper side flattened, apiculate, up to 12 mm long, minutely tuberculate, often tinged with red
• Flowers terminal, solitary, up to 20 mm in diameter, pedicellate
• Sepals 5
• Petals magenta
• Stamens papillate at base; staminodes 0
• Nectary a crenulate ring
• Ovary slightly convex on top; placentas parietal; stigmas 5
• Fruit a 5-locular capsule, of ± Lampranthus type, obconical, woody; expanding keels parallel at base, divergent at points; valve wings very narrow, often absent in old capsules; covering membranes flexible, ± covering the locules; closing bodies 0
• Seeds D-shaped, ± 1.2 mm long, brown, testa rough

• Flowering spring and summer

• Distinguishing characters:
  • Dwarf shrublets with reddish stems
  • Leaves often red-tipped
  • Fruit flat on top, valve wings very narrow, often absent in old capsules

Nomenclature:

• Esterhuysenia L.Bolus
  • Bolus: 308 (1967)
  • Herre: 152 (1971)
  • Hartmann: 44 (1998)
  • Smith et al.: 280 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 4, in rocky places often on high mountain peaks near Caledon, Ceres, Robertson and Worcester in the winter-rainfall region of the Western Cape