Jamesbrittenia lesutica

Jamesbrittenia lesutica is a branched shrub growing woody stems low down and small, pale green, opposite leaves on soft, pale green, hairy upper stems. The leaf-shape is ovate with deep lobes or teeth along the margins. The leaves and stems are finely hairy. This is a Lesotho species, close to South Africa but beyond the border.

Flowers grow near stem tips in axillary racemes. The calyces are small, green and hairy with pointed lobes that spread or recurve at their tips, only covering the back ends of the long corolla tubes. The cylindrical corolla tubes are hairy and brownish purple. The tubes have characteristic Jamesbrittenia upward bends or kinks near the flower mouths. The five more or less rectangular petal lobes of each flower are notched at their tips, slightly undulating along their softly textured pink or white surfaces. The narrow flower mouths give green, orange, white or finely lined glimpses inside the tubes.

This picture was taken in the east of Lesotho in January (iNaturalist; iSpot).