Nemesia deflexa

Nemesia deflexa is a soft, low-growing annual or perennial that branches and spreads to about 20 cm in height. The soft stems are rectangular in cross-section.

The simple leaves are opposite, broadly ovate with bluntly pointed tips, somewhat heart-shaped at the base. The margins are toothed but often entire near the petiole. Midribs and few incurving, lateral veins emerging from the leaf base as well as low down on the blades are sunken on the upper surfaces. The petioles and stems are sometimes hairier than the leaves, some hairs glandular.

The species distribution is in the east of the Western Cape from the Tradouw’s Pass and the Little Karoo on the Swartberg Mountains and the Outeniqua Mountains to the Baviaanskloof, the Kouga and the Langkloof in the west of the Eastern Cape. The photo was taken near Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is seasonally moist fynbos on sandstone, the plants seen on rocky slopes and in shaded kloofs. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (iNaturalist; https://www.worldfloraonline.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).