Barleria hochstetteri

Nees in DC. Prodr. xi. 231 ; pubescent, leaves elliptic or oblong entire, flowers pedicelled, bracteoles small narrow remote from the calyx, corolla 3/4-1 in. lilac. Wight Ic. t. 1528 ; Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 803 ; T. Anders, in Journ. Linn. Soc. ix. 494 ; Boiss. Fl. Orient, iv. 523. Barlerites Hochstetteri, Oerst, in Vidensk. Meddel. Kjob. 1854, 137.

SCINDE ; Stocks.—DISTRIB. S.W. Asia, N.E. Africa.

A woody, harsh undershrub, scarcely 1 foot high, sometimes spinescent. Leaves 2 by 3/4-1 in., obtuse, base narrowed ; petiole 1/3 in. Pedicels 1/4-1/3 in., pubescent, often 3 on an apparent peduncle, the 2 leaves at their base much reduced, usually petioled, oblong or sublinear ; bracteoles about the middle of the pedicel 2, 1, or 0, very small, linear (? bracts). Calyx green, pubescent ; 2 outer lobes 1/3-1/2 in., triangular-ovate, 2 inner very small. Stamens 2, the 3 smaller nearly obsolete. Disc prominent, cup-shaped. Ovary hairy ; stigma scarcely bifid. Capsule nearly 1/2 in., pubescent, ovoid, rostrate, 2-seeded near the base. Seeds densely silky.—Oersted attributes to his very bad genus Barlerites a unilateral linear stigma and glabrous seeds, which is wholly wrong. Submenus 2. Eubarleria. Capsule oblong or narrowly ellipsoid, 4- rarely 2-seeded at or near the middle by the suppression of the 2 lower seeds. * Bract 0, bracteoles 2 divaricate long-linear or spines, 2 outer sepals large. [Each flower on the sympodal raceme is in the axil of one of two opposite bracteoles, and the terminal flower also is apparently 2-bracteolate ; by comparing such species as B. longiflora & tomentosa, it is seen that it is the bracteoles that are really aborted in this section. The next section differs in the terminal flower having 3 (or 4) bracts in place of 2.] Prickly. 

(From The Flora of British India (1884) from IBIS Flora)

Acanthaceae Fortnight : Barleria aucheriana : Oman : 20MAR15 : AK-8 : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (3).  

A native plant of Oman with tiny purple flowers.