Campylanthus pungens - Spiny Curved-Flower

Spiny Curved-Flower is a dwarf shrub up to 100 cm high, usually much lower, dwelling in desert like conditions. Stems are almost leafless, much branched, young branches tinged purple, old ones grey-green, more or less having spiny tips, hairless or sometimes roughulous at base. Leaves are linear-sharp-tipped, pointed, hairless, 1-5 x 0.2-0.5 mm. Flowers are pinwheel-shaped, purple, maroon, mauve, pink or white, hairless outside. Tube is 8-10 x 1-1.5 mm, bent at a sharp angle in lower third. Petals are ovate, pointed at tip, 2.2-3.6 x 1.2-2.2 mm, hairless. Anthers are 1.8-2.5 mm; filaments 0.3-0.5 mm long. Flower-stalks are 0.8-1.5 mm long, hairless; bracts 0.9-1.6 mm long, hairless to fringed with hairs; bracteoles 0.5-1.2 mm long, fringed with hairs. Sepals are linear to narrowly triangular, pointed, 2-5 x 0.7-1.3 mm, usually fringed with hairs, at least at tips. Ovary is slightly compressed, tapering abruptly into a 2-3 mm long style. Flowers are usually up to 5 at ends of branches, occasionally up to about 15 in a 1-4 cm long raceme. Capsules are round, 4-5.5 x 3.8-5.2 mm, reddish-brown to dark-reddish brown. Spiny Curved-Flower is found in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Gujarat.