Suffruticose, finely stellato-pulverulent and canescent; branches virgate; leaves petiolate, ovate, crenulate; stipules setaceo-subulate; peduncles axillary, equalling the leaves; involucel none; calyx-segments lanceolate, acuminate; petals stellate along the dorsal ridge; ovules 3; seeds (young) quite glabrous. A slender undershrub, clothed with very minute, yellowish stellulate pubescence. Leaves 1–1.5 inches apart. Petioles 3–4 lines long. Lamina 0.75–1 inch long, 0.5– 0.75 inch wide. Flowers an inch across, bright scarlet or crimson. Staminal column antheriferous in the middle. Very unlike any Cape Hibiscus; but closely related to H. denudatus (Benth! Sulp. p. 7. t. 3.), a native of Lower California and New Mexico, from which it scarcely differs save in the more minute pubescence, the smaller flowers, and the glabrous seeds. It is also allied to H. micranthus L., a native of North Africa and tropical Asia; but differs in pubescence, want of involucel, and in the glabrous seeds. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis)