| Synonyms: | |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | Very rare in Zimbabwe. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: |
Spiny shrub, 90-150 cm high with stems densely hairy. Leaves elliptic to broadly ovate, 1.2-3cm long, sometimes absent when fruiting, hairs buff or greyish on both surfaces but most dense on the prominent veins beneath; petiole 1-7.5 mm long. Flowers numerous in 1-6-flowered axillary clusters on the upper portion of the branches; bracteoles stoutly spinose, triangular in cross-section, 15-31 mm long, soon turning straw-coloured, persisting as long axillary paired spines. Calyx green or purplish at first with darker venation but soon turning straw-coloured; lobes oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate 7.5-16.5 mm long with margin entire or with 2-3 mucronate teeth at the apex, densely silky hairy. Corolla 25-35 mm long, blue or mauve with numerous glandular hairs on the outside; lobes with 2 smaller upper lobes up to 6 mm long, 2 lateral lobes and a lower lobe 8.5-14 mm long. Capsule 12.5-16.5 mm long, with a few pale hairs at the apex. |
| Type location: |
Zimbabwe |
| Notes: | Locally common in South Africa but in Zimbabwe only known from what is the type specimen. Although the main habitats are not threatened it has not been recollected since 1929. |
| Derivation of specific name: | bremekampii after Professor Cornelis Eliza Bertus Bremekamp (1888-1984), Dutch botanist who lived and worked in Indonesia and South Africa. He worked at the University of Transvaal and also collected in Rhodesia and Mozambique. |
| Habitat: | In open bushland and on dry rocky slopes and outcrops. |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 1100 m (approx) |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Western Zimbabwe and Limpopo, North-West province South Africa. |
| FZ divisions: | W |
| Growth form(s): | |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Darbyshire, I., Vollesen, K. & Kelbessa, E. (2015). Acanthaceae (Part 2) Flora Zambesiaca 8(6) Pages 61 - 62. |