Nemesia

Nemesia is a genus of annual and perennial herbs and undershrubs in the Scrophulariaceae or snapdragon family. Many of the plants are called leeubekkie (little lion mouth) in Afrikaans. The plants are erect or sprawling, the stems often square in cross-section and branched from the base.

The leaves are mostly opposite, sometimes alternate in upper plant parts. The leaf-shape varies from linear to lanceolate and ovate, the margins variously toothed in some species and petioles present in some.

The flowers grow in stem-tip racemes or solitary from leaf axils. There are usually bracts below the pedicels, the bracts sometimes leafy and the flowers often alternate. The calyx is five-lobed.

The corolla is two-lipped and usually five-lobed with a short tube ending in one spur or pouch in its front. The upper lip is four-lobed, the lower lip usually one-lobed with a bulging section or two velvety swellings near its base.

Four stamens in two unequal pairs arise in the corolla tube mouth and usually twist around each other. The mostly elliptic ovary has two locules, the style short and the stigma sometimes two-lobed.

The fruit is a capsule with boat-shaped valves. There are usually numerous seeds in a capsule, their shape ellipsoid with wing membranes attached. 

There are about 70 Nemesia species. All occur naturally in Africa, 60 of which in southern Africa, mostly in the Western Cape. In the veld nemesias often flower well in the first few seasons after fire. Many of the species are browsed. 

Some nemesias are popular as garden plants and many cultivars sporting enhanced floral features exist in international horticulture.

The plant in picture is Nemesia pageae (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007).