Acanthus kulalensis

Acanthus kulalensis is a species of flowering plant in the genus of Acanthus. It is native to North Kenya and grows primarily in seasonal dry tropical biome.

Description

This shrub grows up to tall, has stems and deeply lobed, spine-tipped leaves. Its inflorescences are long cymes with densely hairy, spine-tipped bracts. Flowers have a green calyx with purple tips, a white corolla tube with a pinkish-mauve limb, and filaments up to long. It grows in dry montane forest glades at. A closely related species is Acanthus polystachius, which can be distinguished by several key morphological features. It has a much longer and silkier covering of hairs on the bracts and calyx than A. polystachius. Its bracts and sepal are longer than those found in A. polystachius. Another distinguishing feature is the thickened rim of the corolla, which is absent or less developed in A. polystachius.