Glumicalyx nutans

Glumicalyx nutans, commonly the lesser gooseneck flower, is a perennial reaching about 45 cm in height. The upper stem leaves are alternate to subopposite, simple and stalkless. The leaf-shape is oblong to elliptic with conspicuous marginal toothing, a sunken midrib and curving down to the tip.  

The plant bears stem-tip clusters of cream-coloured flowers. The corolla tubes are long, ending in oblong petal lobes that are brick red to orange red on their upper surfaces and recurve strongly. The corolla tubes are about 12 mm to 16 mm long. Flowering happens in summer and early autumn.

The species occurs mainly in Lesotho and the adjacent Drakensberg of the Eastern Cape, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

The habitat is grassland at medium to high elevations receiving summer rain. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Springer, 2019: The role of pollinators as ecological drivers of diversification in the Drakensberg Mountain Centre endemic genus Glumicalyx (Scrophulariaceae, Limoselleae), University of the Witwatersrand; Manning, 2009; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).