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Description
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Rounded, woody, evergreen shrubs (0.3–)0.8–1.5 meters high. Stems simple or irregularly branched, leafy stems 3–4 mm wide. Leaves narrowly lanceolate, 80–130 × 3–5(–6) mm, margins narrowly hyaline. Inflorescence a ± flat-topped false panicle of (12–)20–40 flowers, bracts subtending branches of peduncle dry, 2–4 mm long, ultimate peduncles bearing single flowers; spathes 6–8 mm long, leathery, dry and dark brown near apices, inner slightly longer than outer; floral bracts dry, light brown, upper margin often lacerate, (10–)12–15 mm long. Flower salver-shaped, not heterostylous but styles somewhat variable in length, pale or deep blue, ± white at base of tepals and in tube; perianth tube 27–33(–37) mm long, ± cylindric, 1.2 mm wide at base, expanding to 2 mm at mouth; tepals spreading, elliptic-oblanceolate, 16–22(–25) mm long, outer 8–10 mm wide, inner 6.5–8.0 mm wide. Filaments (6.5–)8–10 mm long; anthers 2–2.8(–3) mm long. Style exserted (8–)10–15 mm from tube, usually dividing 3–5 mm beyond anther tips, in some plants ± as long as filaments, branches filiform, 2–3 mm long, recurved. Capsules globose-obovoid, 5–6 mm long, ± 4.5 mm diam., rarely with seeds in all locules. Seeds mostly 1 or 2 per locule, rugose, blackish with a loose translucent outer layer, ± 5 × 2.8 mm, smaller if 2 per locule. Chromosome number 2n = 32. Flowering time: mid-January to March.
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