Crossandra puberula Klotzsch

puberula: with minute soft short hairs

Perennial herb, up to c. 40 cm high, growing from a creeping woody rhizome. Leaves in pseudo-whorls of 4, sessile or shortly petiolate, elliptic to ovate in the upper half, usually abruptly narrowed below the middle, becoming lyrate, 11-21 cm long, sparsely and finely velvety, more so on the veins; margin entire or slightly crenate. Flowers in spikes, 4-25 cm long on a peduncle up to 17 cm long. Bracts 15-21 mm long, narrowly ovate, green with abroad white marginal band, entire when young, becoming irregularly frayed with age. Sepals ovate, 6-9 mm long, bristle-tipped; lateral sepals shorter than dorsal and ventral one. Corolla, pale peach-coloured to salmon pink; tube 2-3 cm long, slightly bent; limb 1.3-18 cm long. Capsule 9-11 cm long.

Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe