Menodora heterophylla Moric., low menodora, twinpod. Perennial herb (in range), taprooted, not rosetted, several—many–stemmed at base, decumbent, in range to 20 cm tall; shoots with pinnately to irregularly lobed cauline leaves to some unlobed upper cauline leaves (bractlets), glabrous or inconspicuously puberulent (lower plant); taproot not straight, with coarsely furrowed young bark.
Stems ± 6–sided (upper portion of each internode), green stems to 1.5 mm diameter, with 3 low ridges descending internode from each leaf, tough, lower internodes sometimes puberulent.
Leaves opposite decussate, mostly 2—7–lobed but not symmetric and in canopy some leaves (bractlets) unlobed, subsessile and pair appearing fused across node with a U–shaped connection, without stipules; petiole indistinct from blade, < 1 mm long, with whitish margins; blade oblanceolate (the lowest leaves) to oblong and lanceolate–oblong, in range 13—20+ × 3—5+ mm, dull dark green, tapered at base, entire with margins inrolled (blade appearing more narrow), acute with a callus tip, midrib only visible and conspicuously sunken on upper surface and raised on lower surface, upper surface short–hispid with ascending hairs, lower surface short–strigose or short–hispid.
Inflorescence leafy cyme, terminal on main and lateral stems, several–flowered, not 1—sided, buds and open flowers never coiled at tip, flowers at anthesis subsessile, with alternate leafy bractlets, short–strigose and short–hispid; bractlet subtending inflorescence = cauline leaf, oblong to narrowly lanceolate; peduncle cylindric, densely short–strigose.
Flower bisexual, radial, 4—5 mm across; calyx 5–lobed, at anthesis with erect lobes becoming ascending to spreading; hispid and strigose with upward–pointing stiff hairs; tube cup–shaped, ca. 0.5 mm long increasing 2× in fruit; lobes unequal, narrowly lanceolate, 3.5—4.7 mm long increasing 2× in fruit, inner surface soft short–strigose base–to–tip; corolla 5–lobed, trumpet–shaped (salverform), visible portion white, outer surface strigose, in bud slightly bulging and yellowish on throat opposite calyx lobes; tube flared around ovary, to 1 mm long, white; throat 4—5 × 1 mm, lower throat purple and 1 mm long, midthroat yellowish, upper throat pure white, lacking appendages, lining of midthroat with 5 glutinous, vertical strips of whitish papillate hairs and stalked glandular hairs; lobes rounded, 1.1—1.3 mm long, overlapping at margins, sometimes upper surface with several appressed hairs; stamens 5, fused to corolla tube ca. 0.5 above base and at purple–red zone, included; filaments to 0.7 mm long, whitish; anthers dorsifixed, dithecal, 1.1—1.3 mm long, pale yellow often with colorless tip, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen white; nectary disc beneath ovary inconspicuous; pistil 1, included; ovary superior, deeply 4–lobed, ca. 0.5 mm long, lobes ovoid, green, lacking papillate at anthesis; style arising from center of ovary lobes, ca. 1 mm long, translucent, glabrous; stigma capitate, with 2 lateral and 2 terminal lobes, white.
Fruits capsules paired and separate (2 chambers from a deeply lobed ovary), typically 3—4, erect, triangular–ovoid, 2.5—2.8 × 1.7—1.9 mm, brown, lateral angles acute, outer face minutely bumpy (tuberculate) and with poorly defined short ridges, inner face keeled with groove ± closed; style ca. 1 mm long.
A. C. Gibson