Dissotis swynnertonii (E. G. Baker) A. & R. Fernandes

swynnertonii: named after Charles Francis Massey Swynnerton (1877-1938), well-known naturalist, who first recorded and collected many species of flora and fauna in and around the Chirinda Forest

Shrub up to c. 2 m high. Young branches 4-angled, more or less densely set with whitish-yellow bristly hairs. Leaves opposite often mostly towards the ends of branches, elliptic, oblong-ovate to ovate, up to c. 5 × 2.5 cm, 3-5-veined from the base, somewhat stiff, discolorous, dark green and with appressed bristly hairs above, much paler yellowish-green beneath and bristly particularly on the midrib and veins; margin subentire to finely scalloped; petiole 4-8 mm long, bristly. Flowers terminal, solitary or in few-flowered heads; pedicels and calyx bristly. Petals up to 3 × 2.7 cm, violet-purple, ciliate at the margin. stamens all similar, golden yellow. Capsule spherical, with stiff appressed hairs on the upper part.

Locally frequent

Restricted to the Chimanimani Mts of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.