Description:

• Small, prostrate shrublets up to 500 mm high; long shoots may spread from central stem, rooting at widely-spaced nodes
• Leaves opposite, borne upright, basal leaves joined for up to a third of their lengths becoming membranous and persistent, forming sheaths around young leaves which form the next leaf pair, green leaf pairs 10 to 20 mm long, D-shaped in cross section and borne close together, margins toothed at tips; surfaces with a layer of flaking wax and dark green translucent dots, colour varying from grey-green in rainy season to buff in dry season
• Flowers 1 or 2, borne upright on stalks up to 30 mm long, ± 20 mm in diameter, subtended by bracts resembling leaves; open from midday to mid-afternoon
• Sepals 5, equal, recurved, sometimes with toothed tips
• Petals in 2 or 3 whorls, pale pink with white at the centre
• Stamens forming a central cone; staminodes short
• Nectary a crenulate, dark green ring
• Ovary: placentas parietal; stigmas 5, longer than stamens
• Fruit a 5-locular capsule, close to Mitrophyllum type; covering membranes ample; valves winged; expanding keels diverging and expanding sheets conspicuous; closing bodies absent or present as small bulges
• Seeds smooth, honey-coloured with darker tips

• Flowering in spring

• Distinguishing characters:
  • Small shrublets, branches prostrate, rooting at the nodes
  • Leaves toothed at tips
  • Capsule 5-locular, ± of the Mitrophyllum type

Nomenclature:

• Hammeria Burgoyne
  • Burgoyne et al.: 203 (1998)
  • Smith et al.: 188 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 2, restricted to the Tanqua Karoo and the Ceres Karoo in the Western and Northern Cape