Northern Chinese Hats

tettensis: of Tete in Mozambique

Deciduous shrub or small tree. Bark grey or brown, covered in lenticels, roughish; branches often armed with spines. Leaves opposite, variable, even on the same branch, elliptic-oblong, obovate or oblanceolate, up to c. 11 cm (larger than speciosa), more or less sparsely hairy on both surfaces; margin entire, more or less coarsely dentate or with a few large lobe-like teeth. Flowers axillary, solitary or in few-flowered clusters, sometimes appearing terminal at the apices of branches, Corolla pale to dark mauve, lilac, purple or blue with a distinct 5-lobed lip; labellum of the lower lip wedge-shaped and laciniate. Anthers up to 4 cm long, densely covered in gland-tipped hairs near the base. Fruit c. 6 mm long, enclosed by the persistent calyx, somewhat fleshy, covered in golden-brown velvety hairs, flat on top with 4 horn-like appendages arranged in the form of a cross, the horns 2-3-crested.

Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe.