Braunsia

Compact, erect to prostrate shrublets. Leaves opposite, nearly equal, connate up to half their length, triquetrous, sometimes apiculate, with serrate and cartilaginous keels and margins, +/- 25 mm long, 15 mm broad; velvety from long papillae, stomata overarched by papillae, outer epidermal wall thick. Flowers 1(-3), solitary or in cymes, pedicellate or occasionally sessile, +/- 40 mm in diameter; opening midday to late afternoon. Sepals 5, exterior 2 flattened, inner ones with conspicuous, membranous margins. Petals 1-5-seriate, purple to pink, rarely white. Stamens: filaments slightly ciliate-papillate; staminodes present. Nectary an inconspicuous, minutely crenulate ring. Ovary slightly elevated to slightly concave; placentas parietal; stigmas (4)5(-7), subulate. Fruit a (4)5(-7)-locular capsule, of Lampranthus type but covering membranes not as broad and long as in typical form; lacking closing ledges; expanding keels parallel, lacerate, aristate; covering membranes well developed or reduced to a limb; closing bodies 0; valve wings present. Seeds somewhat globose, echinate. x = 9 (1 report). F lowering from mid-summer to early winter. D istinguishing characters: shrublets with leaves fused for half their length, often with cartilaginous or serrated edges, sometimes velvety with a sharp tip; seeds echinate.