Chironia linoides subsp. linoides

Chironia linoides subsp. linoides, the bitterwortel (bitter root) in Afrikaans, is a single-stemmed shrublet growing to heights around 50 cm.

The simple stem-leaves are opposite, narrow, erect or spreading, and in picture blue-green, growing on thin branches. There is usually also a basal leaf rosette, sometimes dry at bloomtime.

The flowers grow solitary and pedicelled. Each flower has five spreading, obovate, pink petals and a cylindrical tube. The anthers are brightly yellow and the style is flexed skew beside the cohering stamens, ending in a knob-like stigma.

The plants grow in the west of the Western Cape, and the southwest of the Northern Cape in Namaqualand.

The habitat is sandy and marshy flats of the winter rainfall region. The subspecies is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century. 

Apart from subsp. linoides depicted here, there are also subsp. nana, subsp. emarginata, and subsp. macrocalyx in South Africa (Manning, 2009; iNaturalist; https://pza.sanbi.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).