Killickia compacta
Killickia compacta is a rare species of Killickia sometimes called matting bergmint. It is endemic to South Africa′s KwaZulu-Natal province, and is found in only two locations in the central Drakensberg mountains around Cathkin Peak, at around in altitude. Although highly localised, it is not considered threatened.
Description
Killickia compacta is a perennial herb with a strong, woody rootstock. Above-ground shoots are prostrate, mat-forming, and densely branched, reaching up to about in length. Shoots may root at the nodes and can also spread by fragmentation, forming clonal patches. Internodes are typically long, occasionally up to.The leaves are broadly ovate to almost circular, measuring long and wide, with rounded bases and tips and shallowly crenate margins. The petioles are long.
Flowers are solitary, with more than one flower per cyme recorded only rarely. The peduncles are very short, usually and always under. The cyme axis bears two small bracteoles, typically in the proximal half. Flower stalks are long. The bracteoles are narrow, lance-shaped, about long, and keeled.
The calyx is bell-shaped, with 15 veins and a tube just under long. The triangular to lance-shaped calyx teeth are about long and curve outward, leaving the upper part of the corolla tube exposed. The corolla is cobalt violet, long, hairy on the outside and largely smooth inside. The upper lip is shallowly notched, while the lower lip curves downward and is three-lobed, with rounded lateral lobes and a slightly notched central lobe.
The stamens are unequal in length, with the lower pair longer; the anther cells diverge from each other. The style is about long, with two very unequal stigma lobes.
The fruit consists of small nutlets approximately in size.