Liparia

Woody shrubs or shrublets, variable in habit. Leaves simple, variable, linear, lanceolate, elliptic, oblanceolate or cordate to almost round, pungent, palmately-nerved, often drying black; stipules usually present, small, persistent. Flowers usually yellow, 4-many, in terminal heads; bracts large, imbricate, clasping flowers; bracts large and conspicuous, sometimes foliaceous or petaloid; bracteoles 0. Calyx with shortly campanulate tube intruse at base; lobes longer than tube; 4 upper lobes lanceolate, acute, usually united for some distance; lower lobe longer than others, sometimes as large as vexillum, petaloid. Petals: vexillum usually elliptic-oblong, ovate to circular; keel broad with an upward-directed beak or narrow with a forwardly-directed beak, subacute. Stamens 10, diadelphous, unequal, vexillar stamen free, the other 9 connate in a dorsally open tube; anthers versatile, linear, ovate, or sometimes subsagittate. Ovary sessile or shortly stalked, few-ovuled, villous; style villous below, with small, terminal stigma. Pod coriaceous, ovate or oblong, flat, oblique, compressed, 2-valved, hairy, glabrescent. Seeds oblong-reniform, appendaged. x= 9.