Thesium nigricans Rendle

Much-branched, perennial herb. Stems erect, decumbent or scrambling, 0.3-1 m high, ribbed, leafy. Leaves ascending-recurved to spreading, linear, apiculate, 7-20 mm long, decurrent into the ribs of the stems and branches, smaller towards the top and merging into the bracts. Inflorescences with c 20 flowers; bracts leaf-like; bracteoles minute, falling early. Flowers white or yellowish-green, tubular, 4.5-6.5 mm long. Fruit 6-7 mm long. Flowers solitary in axils of bracts, 1-6 together forming small terminal racemes on the branchlets, the whole forming a profusely branched panicle. Bracts linear, 3-12.5 mm long, leaf-like, adnate to almost the entire pedicel. Bracteoles 2, similar to bracts but smaller. Pedicels 0.5-3 mm long or sometimes flowers sesssile. Perianth pale-yellowish-green or whitish; lobes usually 5, hairless. Fruit 1.8-2.5 mm long, light yellowish-brown to red-brown with faintly raised ribs and reticulations.

Locally common

Southern Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe