Melianthus comosus

Erect shrub 2–3 m high; branches canescent or villous. Leaves 10–15 cm long; leaflets 9–11, oblong-lanceolate, 4–6 cm long, 10–20 mm wide, deeply serrate, subsessile, dark green with sparse minute stellate hairs above, grey-tomentose below; stipules subulate, 10–25 mm long, free. Racemes nodding or spreading, to c. 9 cm long; pedicels to c. 10 mm long; bracts ovate, to c. 15 mm long, acuminate. Flowers alternate; sepals conspicuously pouched at base, pubescent, greenish and pink, upper 2 broad-ovate, 10–20 mm long, with a dark red spot inside at the base, lower 3 lanceolate, shorter than upper pair; petals oblanceolate, 12–15 mm long, red. Capsule 25–30 mm long, 4-winged, stellate-downy; seeds ovoid to subglobose, 4–5 mm long. Flowers mainly winter and spring.