Gnidia francisci

Gnidia francisci is a multistemmed shrub reaching heights from 20 cm to 60 cm. It resprouts after fire. The branches may be four-angled, hairy when young.

The opposite leaves grow in whorls of four or decussate. They are elliptic to ovate, oblong or oblanceolate with pointed tips. The blades are concave on top, covered in pale hairs. Leaf dimensions are about 5 mm long and 3 mm wide.

The flowers grow in small stem-tip clusters, often about five of them. There are hairy bracts below the flowers, shorter than the leaves. Each flower has four silky-haired sepals joined in a long, thin, cylindrical to slightly funnel-shaped tube. The calyx lobes are short, round-tipped or pointed, spreading around the flower mouth.

There are eight, petal-like, lance-shaped and fleshy scales erect around the flower mouth. Flower colour is creamy white to yellow. The flower is about 5 mm in diameter, its tube about 15 mm long.

The stamens with oblong anthers growing in two whorls are included in the tube. The oblong ovary is hairy at the top, its style thread-like, ending in a stigma resembling a tuft of hairs.

Flowering happens from late spring to after midautumn.

The species distribution is limited to the Little Karoo on the Outeniqua and Swartberg Mountains. The photo was taken on the Gamka Mountain southwest of Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is fynbos and shrubland on rocky mountain slopes. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; JSTOR; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).