Succulent shrub 0 • 6-1 • 5 m high with stem swollen at the base, bearing several to many aerial branches. Branches erect sparingly branched, white-tomentose when young, becoming scabrid; bark greyish-white, rough. Leaves clustered at the ends of the branches, obovate, 8-14 cm long and 5-8 cm broad, usually folded along the midrib, base cuneate, apex usually emarginate, coriaceous, densely tomentose on both surfaces; secondary nerves distinct, 5-7 mm apart; petiole up to 7 mm long; glands present in the axil; stipules minute or often not visible. Inflorescence terminal, cymose, several-flowered, tomentose; bracts ovate-lanceolate, 5-7 mm long; pedicels 5-10 mm long. Flowers showy, pink to mauve and darker in the throat, appearing before or, usually, with the leaves. Calyx 6-8 mm long, densely tomentose; lobes lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla tomentose without; tube 3-4 cm long, narrowly cylindrical at the base for 5-7 mm then campanulate-cylindrical, 1 cm in diameter, glabrous within except at the point of insertion of the stamens; throat scales obscure; lobes obovate to rotund up to 2 cm long and equally broad, glabrous. Stamens 5, subsessile; anthers lanceolate, sagittate, 5-7 mm long, polliniferous in the upper part, tomentose below with hairy apical tails up to 1 • 5 cm long, reaching within 5 mm of the mouth of the corolla tube. Ovary of 2 free carpels; style filiform, 6-8 mm long, thickened towards the apex; stigma capitate with a lobed basal rim, apex minutely bifid. Fruit of 2 follicular mericarps at first ascending, eventualy spreading at 180°; follicles 10-18 cm long, subcylindrical, tapering at each end, densely white-tomentose. Seeds numerous, linear, brown, striate, 7-9 mm long with a coma of brownish hairs at each end 2 • 5-3 cm long.
