Subshrubs to about 30 cm tall, the stems arising from a woody base, with young stems and leaves h aving silky-grey pubescence. Leaves shortly petiolate, the blade elliptic, rigid, 4-27 mm long, rounded apically and basally. Flowers solitary, subsessile in the leaf-axils or aggregated at the ends of the branches. Sepals unequal, ovate, acute or acuminate, 4-5 mm long, silvery pubescent. Corolla 4-5 mm long. Fruit capsular, apically hirsute, ovoid, 2-3 mm long. Seeds ovoid, 1.5-2 mm long, black, glabrous.

Fl. Per.: July to February.

Type: Arabia, Hejaz, Schimper 884 (G, not seen).

C-7 Jhelum Dist.: Salt Range, 30 miles from Sakesar, Iftikhar Ahmad 27820 (RAW), Baluchistan: F-2 Hushab, M. Qaiser et al. 838 (KUH), G-4 Sind: Karachi, Hub River, Feb. 8,1959, R.R. Stewart s.n. (RAW), Karachi, 1.10.1958, T.R. Naqvi s.n. (KUH), Karachi, University Campus, 5.1.1963, Farida Gal s.n. (KUH), Jemidar Ka Landa, near Karachi, 1851, Stocks s.n. (K), G-5 Hydrabad Dist.: Kotri, 26.12.1959, A. Jalis s.n. (RAW), Haleji, 248 (RAW).

Distribution: East Africa, Socotra, Arabia, Pakistan and India.

The plants are adapted to xeric conditions.