Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 359 (1753).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Galenia.

Description:
Perennial hairy herbs or undershrubs with sessile or subsessile slightly fleshy papillose alternate leaves; stipules 0 or small and caducous.

Flowers sessile and solitary in the leaf axils; perianth of 5 or rarely 4 segments, united at the base in a very short tube, imbricate in the bud, hairy outside; stamens in pairs between the segments; ovary superior, 4- or 5-celled, with 1 ovule hanging from an axile apical funicle in each cell; styles 4 or 5, papillose.

Fruit a small coriaceous angular capsule, splitting loculicidally into 4 or 5 valves; seeds compressed, dark.

Distribution:  About 27 species in South Africa. (R. S. Adamson (1956) Jl S. Afr. Bot. 22:87-127).

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Leaves grey-green, thinly covered with hair-like scales 0.3-0.7 mm long, scattered; stems with short appressed hairs; styles 5; perianth-segments usually pink inside	G. pubescens 1.
1. Leaves grey-white, densely covered with hair-like scales 1-2 mm long, crowded; stems with long more or less spreading hairs; styles usually 4; perianth-segments yellow inside	G. secunda 2.

Author: Not yet available