Hermannia modesta (Ehrenb.) Planch.

kirkii: named after Dr John Kirk, who accompanied David Livingstone on his Zambezi expedition of 1858

modesta: modest, probably referring to the delicate appearance and few, small flowers.

Erect annual herb, up to 60 cm. Stems and branches with glandular and longer simple hairs. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, up to 4 × 1.6 cm, appressed stellate-hairy on both surfaces and sometimes glandular; margins serrate. Flowers drooping, solitary, axillary, orange-red, pink purplish or rarely almost white; peduncle up to 3.5 cm long, pubescent. Fruit a oblong-ovoid capsule, up to 8 × 7 cm, thinly stellate-pubescent, with spreading apical horns, up to 1.5 mm long.

Slender, erect annual herb, up to 60 cm. Stems and branches with short glandular and longer simple hairs. Leaves linear, up to 4 cm long, thinly-stellate-hairy, sometimes also with glandular hairs; margins entire. Flowers drooping, small, solitary, axillary, pink, red or purple; peduncle up to 3.5 cm long, pubescent. Fruit oblong-ovoid, c. 8 × 6 mm, thinly stellate-pubescent, with small spreading apical horns, up to 1 mm long.

Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Limpopo, Mpumalanga, S Africa.

Angola. Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa. Also Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula.