Description:

• Shrubs or small trees, with stellate hairs on many parts
• Leaves opposite or subopposite, lanceolate or oblong, entire or serrate, leathery
• Flowers in axillary and terminal, many-flowered cymes; secreting oil for pollinators
• Bracts in pairs at each branching of inflorescence and subtending pedicels
• Calyx 5-lobed; lobes valvate, ± as long as tube, posterior one slightly larger
• Corolla bilabiate; tube much inflated on anterior side, narrow above, base ± cylindrical, lower lip inflated, forming a deep pouch; lips longer than tube, ciliate and glandular on outer surface; posterior lip erect, deeply 2-lobed, exterior in bud; anterior lip pouch-shaped, shortly trifid; mouth open
• Stamens 4, didynamous, ascending, included; filaments arising at top of narrow, basal part of corolla tube, much thickened at base where they embrace top of ovary; anterior pair twisted at base, bringing anthers to face front of flower above those of posterior pair; anthers bithecate, thecae divergent, confluent at maturity; staminode 1
• Ovary bilocular, conical, tomentose; placenta T-shaped in cross section, whole surface ovuliferous; ovules many; style long, slender, semiterete, included, persistent; stigma simple
• Fruit a woody, ovoid, septicidal capsule, surrounded by calyx
• Seeds many, fusiform; testa deeply reticulate
• x = 20 (1 report)

Nomenclature:

• Anastrabe E.Mey. ex Benth.
  • Bentham: 54 (1836)
  • Hiern: 217 (1904)
  • Hilliard: 4 (1969)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Monotypic: Anastrabe integerrima E.Mey. ex Benth., Mozambique and southern Africa
• Southern Africa: KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape to ± East London; coastal districts