Aspalathus hispida flowers

The leaves of Aspalathus hispida are tiny, fleshy and dark green, clustered on short side-branchlets. The leaf-shape is nearly cylindrical with a tiny bristle-tip.

The honey-scented flowers are scattered along the side-branchlets, not clustered at the stem-tips. The flowers are small and pale cream, nearly white on the banner petals with a violet tinge on the keels, mainly at their tips. The calyx lobes are pointed, similar in appearance to the leaf tips.

Flowering happens in spring and early summer, sometimes already starting in winter. This photo was taken near Grotto Bay in September (Manning and Goldblatt, 1996; Bean and Johns, 2005).