Lobostemon stachydeus

Lobostemon stachydeus is a slender, single-stemmed shrub reaching about 60 cm in height. The young stems are coarsely hairy, the old stems leafless.

The alternate, simple leaves are sessile, ascending around the upper stems. The leaf-shape is oblong to lanceolate or ovate, tapering to pointed tips. The margins are entire. The slightly folded in (or concave above) blades may be sparsely long-haired in parts, particularly along the margins and midribs; short-haired elsewhere. The midribs are prominent on the lower surfaces.

The sessile, blue flowers growing in pairs often fade to pink and may be white or pinkish at the corolla base. The flowers are funnel-shaped with five, green, pointed and hairy sepals around the base and ovate bracts below that. Flower diameter is about 1 cm. The stamens are exserted. Flowering happens in spring and early summer.

The fruits are ovoid to three-angled, hairless but with tubercles.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape, the west of the Eastern Cape and the far south of the Northern Cape Karoo. The photo was taken at Minwater near Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is karoid, loamy and sandy flats and slopes in semi-arid conditions. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Shearing and Van Heerden, 2008; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; https://www.worldfloraonline.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).